Killybegs: St Mary’s Parish Church

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Killybegs: St Mary’s Parish Church
I
It weighs on me these memories of her;
what was, is gone, what might have been, unknown
and unknowable. One brief moment
of encounter fires and explodes and ripples
and ripples and still the heart aches and is storm-
tossed; out of the depths of a forgetfulness
where there is no forgetting – a memory

alive now and quaking. She sat and prayed
here, maybe thought of me and added
a special blessing for my wellbeing. Does she
think of me now? Does she wonder what became
of me? With iridescent callousness
you have placed in our hearts so much capacity
to feel, to love, but also loss and its pain.

II
Above the tabernacle in stained glass grey and white,
St. Catherine leans on the altar of crucifixion,
exhausted, waiting with stigmata and crown
of thorns, pleading, hoping. But you, past pain, you knew
it too: God- abandonment, hanging there the promise

scourged and cleansed of any and all deceit, Christ
of the sea and the black depths of memory never
to be relived or relieved, tangled into that thorny
crown clutching at the scutch of hope, the heart
as yet unhealed and maybe unhealable.

[Jimmy O'Connell]

I have reworked this one.
I think it's better for the cutting and editing.

[James the miller]

Very evocative, Jimmy and well written. I like your style!

P.S. I didn't do a comparison between the two versions...I concentrated on reading the latter.

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Thanks James
appreciate the positive comment

[Jimmy O'Connell]

I have done some more work on this one...
don't know as yet when the muse will be satisfied...
she's being a bit difficult at the moment !!!!!!

[Cate]

Hi Jimmy, I think all of your work has payed off nicely!
I saw two of the other versions and though my memory is a bit shaky I think that this one has the strongest image. Though it's not said I imagine an older man sat in a church remembering and feel drawn into his thoughts.

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Thanks Cate for your comments... and your appreciation