PADDY Bushe lives in Kerry and has published nine collections of poetry, seven in English and two in Irish. A translator of works into Irish, he has edited other poets and is a member of Aosdána. His latest collection was ‘My Lord Buddha of Carraig Éanna’, 2012.
‘Woman and Winter Wind’ below is from the ‘Dream of a City’ anthology, 2014 and it is ripe with expectation.
Woman and the Winter Wind
i.m. Regina Derieva
The woman lay among the soft mounds/ at the very top of the hill, at one/ With the buffeting wind that combed/ The airy moor-grass across her face.
All the hillside streamed with it, and she/ Flowed with it too, and danced each time/ A withered blade broke free and whirled/ And scribed its ecstasy into the air.
O never, she thought, was woman/ So safely held, as the wind swept up/ And over the hill, pouring out through/ A rocky gap into the winter sky.
Prelude, she whispered, this grassy wind/ Breaking through that wild gap is prelude.
