Changes

A further example of poet in transition: a father and his child witness a special natural phenomenon; the experience provides him with an example of ‘change’ and with it a snippet of wisdom to be stored for the future. As they approach an emblematic Irish pump, long since replaced by mains water (in the long grass); the child knows not to speak (in silence). The father belongs to the generation that installed the pump; he can still ‘hear’ the shaft being constructed (bite of the spade that sank it), recall the mood of the stonemason as he embedded the pump (the slithering and grumble as the mason mixed his mortar). He pictures the aftermath of readily available drinking water (women […]