Monday, May 19, 2008

Dancing at Kilfenora


Between the Jigs and the Reels

Between a jig and a reel
what is there?
Only one beat
escaped from a ribcage.

Tunes are migratory
and fly from heart to heart
intimating
that there's a pattern
to life's pulls and draws.

Because what matters to us most
can seldom be told in words
the heart's moods are better charted
in its own language --

the rythm of Cooley's accordian
which could open the heart of a stone,
John Doherty's dark reels
and the tune that the sea taught him,
the high parts of the road and the underworlds
which only love can brave
to bring us back to our senses
and on beyond.

Moya Cannon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I still remember how out of breath I felt after being whirled around by the champion dancer Michael Greene at my first dance at Kilfenora -- and of course, that was when I was JUST recovering from the worst case of car sickness after being hurled, through the dark, up Corkscrew Hill and all the way to Kilfenora.

Wow.

It was incredible how Michael could dance and how some of the oldest people there would suddenly come alive with feet of fire.

Amazing.