.
Slàinte!
Today we’ll lift the Lenten limitations
And don our Gaelic garb of kelly green.
Bonhomie and glee and lush libations
Will flow at dawn and dusk and in between.
We’ll pluck a harp and pick a lucky shamrock,
Kiss the Blarney Stone and spin a yarn,
Eat colcannon, steaming stew, and ham hock
As leprechauns make mischief in the barn.
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
Will burst from balladeers down cobbled lanes.
We’ll waltz and watch the Galway twilight falling
While moonbeams dance on cottage windowpanes.
We’ll toast to Irish eyes that always smile,
St. Patrick and the snakeless Emerald Isle.
.
.
Susan Jarvis Bryant has poetry published on Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope, and Expansive Poetry Online. She also has poetry published in TRINACRIA, Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems anthology, and in Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets in the UK). Susan is the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition, and has been nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.
Lovely and perfect for the day, Susan. You are blessed.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, jd. Here’s wishing you a happy St Patrick’s Day.
Susan:
This makes me wish I was Irish!
Russ
Russ, in the new normal of our dystopian world, your wish is granted. A very happy St. Patrick’s Day to you… I’ll raise a glass of Guinness in your honor.
So if St Patrick drove the Snakes out of Ireland, does that mean he’s a metaphor for the Midlandian Glaciation?
Fred, St Patrick driving snakes out of Ireland is a myth… but I like your quirky way of thinking.
You certainly captured the essence of St. Patrick’s Day! Thank you for the salient images.
Thank you, Roy!
Susan, what a delightful and joyous sonnet to wake up to on St. Patrick’s Day! You’ve taught me two new words (sláinte and colcannon) and you’ve inspired me to don green and have some mash for dinner. I do want to know what those leprechauns are up to in the barn, but maybe that’s best left to the imagination. A quick shout-out for your delightful use of poetic devices — I especially like the internal rhyme and alliteration of “we’ll pluck a harp and pick a lucky shamrock.” And I just noticed your updated biography — Congratulations, Susan, on being nominated for the Pushcart!!! That is fantastic news indeed — true gold at the end of the rainbow! In response to your Irish titled poetic greeting, to your good health today and always!
Brian, I’m glad my poem filled you with joyous vibes from the Emerald Isle… I’m certain you rocked the color green and hope you enjoyed your spuds. As for the leprechauns, they are weaving their mischief beyond barn doors these days… we may not see it, but I know we all feel it. Thank you very much for your congratulations and your continued support… Slàinte! 🙂
Susan, that is one great poem, and it should be preserved by the Irish for every St. Patrick’s Day to come.
Joe, what a splendid thought – thank you very, very much!
Susan, if only I’d had this to read out at our St Patrick’s gig last night. I love, “Moonbeams dancing on cottage windowpanes” and thanks for the snake info. of which I was unaware. I once had an Irish friend whose catch-phrase was, “I don’t know how you do it.” I don’t know how you do it, coming up with such mind-boggling wordplay. A great, great poem.
Jeff, I’m over the moon you love the poem and especially those moonbeams. If we survive 2022 and we’re around to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day next year, I’d be honoured if you read the poem out to your many fans. I know you provided them with some wonderful music. I hope there was some Irish dancing going on. My dear departed friend was Irish, and her daughter entered many Irish dancing competitions in England. I cheered her on in the Riverdance era when Michael Flatley made Irish dancing sexy… ish. Jeff, thank you!
Susan, last night we viewed the original Riverdance 1994 production on YouTube. It was the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest and it stole the show. Worth a look.
You’re the queen of alliteration!
Cheryl, that is a title I am honored to accept… with humungous heaps of happiness held here in my humble heart. Thank you!
Though I tend to doubt the part about the snakes, I’ve got a bit of Irish in me, thanks to my maternal grandmother Beatrice McCarthy, and I appreciate anything having to do with my biological and cultural heritage. I know this comes from the wrong season, but I think you might like it anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8&list=PLS8Zlf0bZTBygudK_x2b1qfDGnNxbdKFZ&index=6
English? Irish? Scottish? Who gives a damn? This is a shared heritage, which has created some astounding music, and we should never discount the Beatles or the likes of Christie Moore.
C.B. Shane McGowan is known over here as the dentist’s friend. The Pogues were always the rougher end of Irish music and as much as I love this song, I hate the lyrics of that last verse. Give me Clannad or a red-haired Colleen on a harp any day.
C.B., I hope that little bit of Irish in you was celebrated to the full! I certainly agree with you on the music front, and this one is up there with my favorite Christmas hits. In fact, I’m a huge fan of Kirsty McColl. When I was at secondary school, my English teacher told the class the best poetry was to be found in music lyrics. At age 14, my favorite ‘poem’ was Kirsy McColl’s, “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis”… I still love it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QccPUSTMriM
Wonderful poem, Susan, that brings back so many memories from when I visited Ireland, although I don’t care for Mead. You captured completely most of what defines the Irish or Ireland.
We had rain here for St. Patrick’s Day, so today I’m wearing my knitted wool kelly green sweater (with the shamrock on the front) that I purchased from the Blarney Woolen mills. Don’t forget there are a small segment of the protestant Irish population that wear orange.
Tamara, thank you for dropping by and imparting with your experience of Ireland. Mead is a liqueur in the UK… a honey liqueur I drank in Cornwall that was far too sweet for me. As for wearing orange… if I lived in Ireland, I would be wearing orange. Your sweater sounds lovely, and I could’ve done with the warm, comfort, and style of your jumper in Texas over these past couple of months… it’s been far too cold for Texans!
Susan, what a three-tiered tea tray of Irish tidbits this is! The three tiers are the three quatrains, but I most like the base (the couplet) which you introduce so well “while moonbeams dance on cottage windowpanes.” And with all its music, let’s call this dazzling display a dimpled medley. But how do you compose with a bottle in one hand and a fiddle in the other?
Margaret, I am thrilled with your beautiful, alliterative take on my St. Patrick’s Day offering. I can only ask, how are you able to compose without a bottle in one hand and a fiddle in the other? 🙂
Susan, I love your “lanes’/’windowpanes’ lines in particular, from what is a mellifluous poem full of charming images.
This is wonderful Susan and worth multiple reads. Your use of alliteration is quite brilliant without being heavy-handed and overall the piece has that extremely musical quality that Celtic storytelling is known for.