A WONDER TOLD SHYLY
(for Res)

He cradles it
palm to palm

like a newborn.

Talks to it
tenderly

as if his self
was talking to his soul

& the squeezebox
with a little wheeze

(that's almost
human)

talks back to him
in music

(the language
of the soul)

and we
overhear

this private
conversation

&
are still

drinking deep
of its beauty


*


  A WONDER TOLD SHYLY is  about that wonderful moment in the concert when Liam Clancy slings the guitar to the side and recites Austin Clarke's THE PLANTER'S DAUGHTER and then asks the squeezebox about a plaintive Irish air.


As Clarke's poem puts it....' like a bell that is rung...like a wonder told shyly...and oh she was the Sunday in every week!'