…..
Return Again
Go back to the place
where rounded hills rise
deep greens and rocky peaks
beaded with soft white sheep
where dry limestone walls
stitch the landscape
into erratic patchwork
edged by endless gray blue seas
where you feel at once
at home, though you
never lived here.
Stand on a high point
at the end of a single-lane twister
of narrow heart-stop road
edging up the sharp mountain
stand wind-blasted and heart-spun
and read an Irish poem aloud,
words rushing into the rain-bright air.
Gulls’ cries and wind’s song
scattered words and distant cars
aching sound-shards of yearning
disperse into the embracing landscape
curving around and away.
You can always come back.
You can never leave.
Close your eyes. Wherever you are,
may these set-down words
held in place in a white space
carry you, heart-hopeful
and heart-worn you, home.
……
This poem is from the chapbook
Tumblehome by Susan Jaret McKinstry (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/tumblehome-by-susan-jaret-mckinstry/
Tumblehome is structured like a musical fugue, moving in three sections from the west coast of Ireland to London, then to Galway, and back to a small town in Minnesota as it interweaves and deepens themes of home, time and loss. The #poems contemplate vast human history and the small space of our lives in distinct voices and episodes, with closely-observed objects – coins, stones, birds, water – reappearing and echoing to create a harmonic poetic travelogue.
Susan Jaret McKinstry has published poems in Plain Songs I & II, Crosswinds, Willows Wept, Red Wing Poet Artist Collaboration, and TheJournal of General Internal Medicine. A professor of 19th century British literature, theory, and creative writing at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, she yearns for the sea, and has been lucky to teach in Ireland, Scotland, Norway, London, Florence, and Moscow.
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