The ribbon of daffodils converses with
gentle, knowing nods. Something big is afoot.
Something big is marching through the world.
They sense it. Chinese whispers undulate along
the fluttering rows. They know it as well as I and
all the other walkers. Those daffodils caress each
other, gracefully confide in each other. They revel in
an orgy of listening while we walkers give each other a
wide berth, alarmed by each other’s exhalations; terrified
of inhaling the infectious spores carried on the wind, the
very wind that shakes those murmuring daffodils. We are
the antithesis of those yellow storytellers. We hope that this
dread season will equal their lifespan, that their descendants will
pass different whispers down the line. And that gives me hope.
………………………………………….
Berni’s poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Galway Review, Cránnog, Irish Times New Irish Writing, and A New Ulster and Stepaway Magazine among others. Her first collection, Frankly Baby, was published by Lapwing Poetry in 2018. She performed her one-woman show, Unrhymed Dublin, in the Smock Alley Theatre 2016 Scene and Heard Festival. In 2017, she won second prize in the Johnathan Swift Poetry Award. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Anthony Cronin International Poetry Award. Her show The Seven Ages – Like It or Not with fellow poets Michael J Whelan, Jimmy O’Connell and Alan O’Brien, featured in the Smock Alley Theatre 2020 Scene + Heard Festival. Say hello on twitter or visit her website.
Lifts my heart, thank you. A delightful ‘cheery upper’. H
Beautiful Bernie – giving Hope xx
A most touching summing up of the situation; Margaret Hayward
Very beautiful summing up of the present situation- Margaret Hayward;
Love it Berni, the poem says it all. We have separate lives now the daffodils and us, lucky them, not knowing what we know! We look to next year’s Spring.
Marian Gibbs