Sunday, August 21, 2011

CONNEMARA

Air heavy with the sweet tang of salt and seaweed.

Riotous hedgerows bursting with orange crocosmia, creamy pink honeysuckle and purple thistle heads.

Splashes of red fushia buzzing loudly as unseen bees do their work.

A lone cow stands upon a rocky outcrop.

Water softly lapping and slapping seashore stones.

Early morning crisscross trails of the overnight transatlantic flights as they finally find the North Atlantics edge,

Each flight tearing a rip in a wraparound sky,

Of cloudscapes like celestial cities.

Magnificent castellations and turrets and cruising spaceships,

Reflected perfectly in the still water below.

The horizon folding the image at its centre.

A hurl of rain against the wall of the cottage,

Twenty minutes later a burst of yellow sunshine.

Hidden religs – uneven fields of bones and raggedy assemblies of holy relics and plastic flowers.

Agus an Gaeilge – beautiful guttural sounds gurgling in the throats of local men in the fields.

The smell of turf fires in August,

At dusk the plaintiff cry of a curlew,

And the Connemara light, especially in evening, as the sun dips below the horizon on this western edge of Europe.

11 comments:

  1. "The horizon folding the image at its centre" - love that, Babs! :)

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  2. How absolutely lovely! Thank you for bringing Connemara into my life here in the hills of southern France (39 degrees today)A VERY welcome evocation of one of my favourite places on earth...

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  3. Gorgeous writing Barbara! You know I love it when you write this type of thing. Such wonderful imagery, your words have weaved real magic. Beautiful!

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  4. "If a picture could paint a thousand words" David Gates 1971
    Yet your words evoke thousands of pictures . Well done Barbara.

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  5. Beautiful writing - thanks for brightening my sunday!:)

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  6. Gorgeous Barbara...in what part of the glorious county were you, seeing that I'm just back from Delphi (beside the only fjord in Ireland)myself?

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  7. Such evocative writing, Barbara, I love it there myself. I love that smell of turf, just back from Kerry and miss it.

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  8. Ok twice I have typed a full reply to each comment and twice my comment has dissappeared... so thank you each.. I really appreciate the kind comments.

    Mari G - we were in Leitir Moir - gorgeous and we also flew to Inis Oirr for the day! <Magical

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  9. How wonderful. Thanks for sharing. It's years - years - since I visited Connemara but I fell in love with the place. Just gorgeous.

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  10. Fab, just fab. I loved; "Agus an Gaeilge – beautiful guttural sounds gurgling in the throats of local men in the fields."

    Onwards
    Michelle

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