Considering

Considering

John F. Deane

Many sparrows have been chortling
in the gutter-dust, then working at nests
with twigs and the numbered hairs
of your head;

among lilies of the field and in the dunes
the landrail has been iterating his scratch-music
across the dusk;
in the long night-time one is island,

rooted to the seabed, glad that at least
the tides are constant, and the slipway bright
under the light-house;
these nights,

my eyes come open suddenly and too often
onto darkness, bringing moments of a searing solitude,
awareness of the constellations,
black as ravens flying through the black

wildernesses of space;
then I hear in the distance
the long-lost monks
in their ceaseless Gregorian chants of praise

while I name flowers of the island,
from Aaron’s beard to yarrow,
considering how the giving of our daily bread
ought not to matter,

yet how it does.

---

John F. Deane
Poet

John F. Deane is an Irish poet who has published more than a dozen collections, including his most recent book Naming of the Bones (2021, Carcanet). He has received many honours including the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.

Photography by Zach Lezniewicz