Jane Clarke: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blue Cards

 

Winter mornings he was gone before dawn

to fairs in Ballyhaunis, Claremorris, Ballinrobe.

He came home with muck on his coat,

smelling of Shorthorns and Herefords.

 

Sometimes he told us who he’d met,

the blind man who knew each of his cows

by their lowing, the widow who bargained

harder than any dealer. But mostly he sat

 

distracted by prices, cigarette smoke

spiraling to the kitchen ceiling, blue cards

spread around the table. Today, when everyone

else was away, I wrapped him warm,

 

pushed his wheelchair through the haggard,

up the yard to the sheds. The cattle lifted

doleful eyes from heaps of silage.

Hello lads, he said.

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Jane Clarke is the author of two poetry collections, The River and When the Tree Falls, as well as an illustrated chapbook, All the Way Home, (Smith|Doorstop 2019). Jane’s awards include the 2016 Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry and the 2016 Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year. Originally from a farm in Co. Roscommon, Jane now lives with her wife in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.  [“Blue Cards” is from Where the Tree Falls, published by Bloodaxe Books, 2015 & 2019; a blue card is a bovine animal passport.]

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                                                              Frank McElvey (1895--1974), Fair Day. Oil on canvas.

Comments

[Barbara Henning]

Beautiful image and memory. Thank you.

[mitch sisskind]

Beautiful and affecting.

[gracecavalieri]

go to
gracecavalieri.com
left message bar
scroll down to see her name
and click on to hear her own sweet lyrical voice

I love this woman

[lally]

what a deliciously satisfying poem

[Beth Joselow]

This quiet poem awakens all the senses. Still feeling it. Thank you.

[Mary Winch]

I can hear her father greeting the cows...hello lads. Thanks fo Grace Cavalieri for sharing the Jane Clarke’s story in her own lyrical voice. ❤️

[clarinda harriss]

Yes to what Beth Joselow wrote. Yes.

[Eileen Reich]

Loved this poem as well as the photo of the author and, of course, the cow.

[Chris Mason]

Lovely poem and great to learn about bovine animal passports!

[Don Berger]

This poem's beautiful title moves into layers of a world the speaker sees and knows well, delivered through the richest song the ear folds around, making us want to live in this world or at least pretend we do--and last line's with has a great kick of surprise, a nice bookend to that title.

[Patrick Clancy]

"pushed his wheelchair through the haggard,

up the yard to the sheds...."

Homeric!

Thanks much, Terence Patrick, for sending this.

[Terence Winch]

PJC: I'm very glad you liked the poem.

[Jane Clarke]

Thank you all very much for the comments. Thanks also to Terence and I love the painting he chose to accompany the poem.

The interview with Grace Cavalieri was an absolute joy during my visit to Washington DC in 2019, courtesy of the Irish Arts organisation Solas Nua.

[Peter Kearney]

Now that all my travel is virtual, this poem is my trip back to my father's home in Ireland, haggard and all.