unsubscribe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <jeanrice@cet.com> To: <IRELAND-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:08 PM Subject: [IRELAND] "Half Century" -- Maeve KELLY (contemp.) > HALF CENTURY > > Others have not been lucky as we > Who have shared these generous times, > Welding together even in absence > Every present moment, so that we become > Almost one flesh, each self-sufficient > Though interdependent. Siamese twins. > It would not be true to say there have been > No rows, no flurry of disparate views, > Flaring to rooftop high > Our loud sundering of old vows. > They have been rare and only memorable > Because of that. > Yet our lives have not be placid -- > The usual deaths, the common griefs, > The surge and swell of children, > Bad school reports, drugs in a window box, > Even the policeman at the door. > > When I look back through my half century > I am astonished to discover > That for only half of it > I have known you. The other half > Collapses on itself by this default. > That first growth seems in retrospect > A kind of vagrancy, a maverick uncertainty > Without anchorage. An unrewarded search. > > I am overwhelmed by the dicey chance of this. > Other lovers write in praise > Or in cherished recall of the intimacies > Which, being secret, are shattered by a phrase. > I cannot describe the puzzle we have made, > Jig-sawing miraculously, fitting our variety, > Our patchwork lives, our woven cloth, > Many-textured, many-coloured, into this tent > With which we clothe and house ourselves. > > These are the things we have together made, > Gardens and houses, walls I know will stand > Long after we are gone. Vistas have opened > And closed to our command, > And the buttressed land has been breached > And yielded a little. All may remain > When we unfold ourselves in twin plots > And return separately to that dust > Which gave us common sustenance. It is a grief > I dare not ponder, our separate deaths. > Will we, I wonder, for the next half > Or half a century, with unexplored insight > Unwind, unfold, untangle twined-over roots from roots. > Unravel time itself so that we may slide > Placidly back to birth, and finally divide? > > All those unsayable words > You being private, regard as sacred > Will have found their place. > Can these things we have made > Speak of them, our loves, our fears, our griefs? > Or the nonsensical breakfast discussions, > Politics, the day's bombings, the brute maimings, > The tattered fabric of our outer lives? > Is that what we will leave? > > Lovers who are permitted > Mirrored glimpses of each other > Forget the privilege and become familiar. > We have somehow escaped such despair, > Are constantly amused by the absurd. > Perhaps we share > A half-witted simpleness > And regard the world > Through the other's innocence. > > -- Maeve Kelly > > > ==== IRELAND Mailing List ==== > Ireland Mailing List website..surname registry, links, lookup > volunteers,unsubscribe, change your subscription from L to D or D to L > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrelandList/ > >