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NJ McGourty Dec 2012
I
In a land of myths, from the jaded isle,
Great stories are told of the brave and the guile.
But no legend of druids, of hags or ghouls,
Can compare to that of our own Fionn McCool.
In the province of Ulster, before armalite,
There lived a race of warriors who knew how to fight.
And who was their leader? The fiercest of the feared?
Of course it was Fionn! With his glorious ginger beard.
He had arms like a gorilla, at an impressive 8 feet,
And lived on a diet of very rare meat.
He drank only water he squeezed from stone,
And discovered 47 uses for human bone.
It was his giant strength that brought McCool his fame,
In kingdoms far and wide people knew his name.
But what was less renowned was his mental might.
Aul Fionn had towering intellect and wit to match his height.

II
When news of Fionn's exploits reached a pub in Aberdeen,
A mammoth figure emerged from the pungent, men’s latrine.
The patrons gave a shudder as it stooped through the door,
“O...One more Ben?” stuttered the barman as his **** reached the floor.
The giant gave a shout and wretched a toilet door aloft,
“Who scrieved this scaffy drawin, sayin that I’m soft?”
Silence gripped the bar as the men examined with horror,
A crude etching of Fionn McCool thrashing Benandonner.
The men remained mute, as the giant turned carmine,
“You think this Fionn boyo’s tough, I’ll carve out his spine!”
And so the giant departed, making his way west,
But not before he slaughtered the group and downed the drinks they left.

III
A roaring voice came through the mist and reached our own Fionn’s ear,
But when he reached the Antrim coast, he near ****** himself with fear
Seeing Ben on Scotland’s edge, throwing boulders to the sea,
“I’ll turn yer lungs to bagpipes! Ye feeble wee beastie!”
Fionn trembled before the monster, twice as big as he,
With a chest as wide as a trawler and biceps thick as trees.
Now Fionn was not a coward but nor was he a fool,
As the rocks formed a bridge he saw ‘the late Fionn McCool.’
And so he sparked a plan to deceive the creature,
A plot in which his wisdom and his wife would feature.
Running to his house he rushed to build a crib,
And dressed as an infant to complete the fib.

IV
With the last stone in place, Ben crossed the sea,
With ‘murrrdur’ in his heart, his eyes mad with hateful glee.
He crouched to enter the house after kicking through the door,
Grabbing Oonagh in his hand, “Now where’s yer husband *****?!”
Fionn’s wife was calm as he held her off the ground,
But wretched as she smelt the breath of a gum-diseased hound.
“He’ll return soon,” she said as the shoes fell off her feet.
“but put me down and while you wait I’ll fix you something to eat”
While Oonagh was in the kitchen, Big Ben released a smirk,
“From the size of his wife, killing McCool won’t be much work.”
Oonagh lead the deception, returning with some cake.
But had placed rocks in the batter, before she’d begun to bake.
Benadonner was surprised, when he took his first bite,
He reached into his mouth and removed a pearly white.
Not wanting to seem weak, by refusing a McCool snack,
The giant continued to eat the stones until all his teeth had cracked.

V
Gumming back a sob, the brute looked around,
He spied the crib in the corner, and was disturbed by what he found.
A child sleeping soundly, but of such monstrous size,
Ben, now blind with tears was fooled by Fionn’s disguise.
Coughing to hide his alarm, the Scottish giant inquired.
“Is Fionn McCool the man, to whom this weeun is sired?”
Oonagh laughed and replied, “He’s his father’s son, no doubt.”
“Sure I remember he was six foot four when I popped him out.”
Now the Scot started sweating, THE BABY WAS FECKIN TITANIC!
When he imagined the father’s size the goliath began to panic.
He ran from the house, kilt flapping in the wind,
As McCool watched from his window, he kissed his wife and grinned.

VI
While Ben crossed the bridge, he dismantled his creation,
To ensure the ****** couldn’t follow, he divorced the nations.
Now centuries later, if you need proof today,
The remains of Ben’s bridge is called the Giant’s Causeway.
Bardo Oct 2021
And so, there I was in the dark again
What was going to happen now I wondered ?
A moment ago, there had been a nightmare dangerous and threatening
It was like the film "The Magnificent Seven" from the Sixties I thought, the Western
(The one with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach et al, I had always loved that one)
The nightmare was like the bandits descending upon the innocent little village
Looking to terrorise and plunder and pillage
Leaving the people all despairing, the little children and their mothers crying
But this time... this time things they would be different
This time there'd be a welcoming committee (the Seven)
"Ha! Ha!" the Bandit leader had laughed, "I see you've built new walls, you try to keep us out"
"No!" came back the reply, "those walls are there to keep you in...we deal in lead friend"
Now suddenly the tables were turned
It was their turn to feel afraid (the nightmare)
You could see it in them, see their faces drop/fall
All their bravado and bluster suddenly drained out
Yea! we'd called their bluff
And then, just like magic, like a puff of smoke
They were gone, just dissolved into nothing, into the darkness,
And so here I was, all alone again in the dark
What was going to happen now I wondered ?

Suddenly a little light appeared in the very top left hand corner
As I watched it I could see that it was growing larger
Pretty soon I could see what it was
It was a snake, a black headed thing like no snake you'd ever seen before
It was like it was moving at a tremendous speed
It looked agitated, enraged even
It was hissing, it's head going from side to side, its fangs showing,
It brought to my mind a fish we once found in a rock pool as kids after a high tide
A strange fish, it scuttered madly around its pool as if looking for a way out
It had these teeth and this fierce wicked look
So wet and slippery looking, it had an energy that was uncanny
It looked like it might jump out of its pool at any moment
It scared me just watching it.

From only being something tiny, now it had grown into something big, rearing up in front of you
You could see the black scales and the deep dark furrows about its face
The huge yellow eyes, the great fangs and the slithering tongue
It was like a jet black steam engine bearing down on you...hurtling toward you
Now it was nearly taking up the full field of my vision
It had grown huge and towering, threatening to overwhelm
I grew afraid, this was something different I'd never seen anything like this before
I decided it was time to go, I wasn't going to hang around
So I pulled out of the dream and awoke with a start
I thought for a few moments, what had I been through, what had I just seen ?
Then I started to castigate myself, why did you run, why didn't you face it, face it down
They were all bluffs, the whole lot of them
You would have seen what was behind it
I was afraid, was afraid I wouldn't get back, that I wouldn't be able to come back...
"Come back!!" I berated myself "come back to what exactly !!!
This world of pains and slow decay, of anxieties and humiliations...of faint joys...ever decreasing circles
There wasn't a whole lot to come back to, now was there
(Y'know I bet their all just waiting... just expecting to hear
"O! He passed away did he, well he was a strange bloke, wasn't he". That'll be my epitaph)".

Then I remembered... I remembered the wonderful old Irish myth/ legend "The Salmon of Knowledge"
(I don't know why that came into my head),
A magical fish, the Salmon of Knowledge lives in a sacred river,
It's said if anyone catches this fish and eats of its flesh the wisdom of the whole world will be theirs
A wise old poet/sage spends his life looking for the fish
Finally he catches it, he has a servant boy Fionn and has him cook the fish
He warns Fionn, under no circumstances eat of the flesh of this fish
But as the fish cooks on its spit over the fire
A blister forms on the fish and then suddenly bursts
Some oil from the fish spurts out and lands on his hand and burns him
He puts his finger in his mouth to ease the pain
And suddenly his eyes are opened to all the Wisdom of the World
When the wise poet sage returns, he sees straightaway the change in Fionn
The transformation that has occurred, the way Life seems to shine in him... (Fionn goes on to become one of the greatest of warriors
And to have many great adventures).

"Next time" I thought to myself, "next time I'll know what to expect, next time it'll be different".  Next time I'll be ready. Next time....
For Halloween. This was another old visionary dream I had once many years ago. I don't know was it the Kundalini or what it was, now I wasn't going to ask him was I LoL I had some old Yoga books which I used to read. Back in the 60's & 70's there were about 7 or 8 different kinds of yoga (there's probably hundreds today). The most mysterious and esoteric was a branch called Kundalini Yoga. It was said that if a person meditated for long periods of time they might awaken the Kundalini or Serpent power which was said to reside at the base of your spine, when awoken it was said the Kundalini would come charging up like a serpent through your Chakras (chakras correspond to the glands in the human body) into your brain/crown Chakra where suddenly you would be enlightened (or eaten LoL). I never came across him again but one of these days... LoL.
Donall Dempsey Dec 2023
FOOTSTEPS SET IN TIME

the lightness
of your footstep
as you hurried to me

caught
in the slowly setting
concrete you didn’t see

holds your fleeting love
permanently
your footsteps greedy for me

paying no attention
to the world
whatever

only knowing that
in a few footsteps more
you would be precious

and adored for who you are
your footsteps
still exist

echoing inside my tears
as I put my next step
inside yours

and the snow
fills
the other footsteps up

*

My little girl forever running to me and delighted that daddy is home. Footpath? What footpath!

In the Tales of the Boyhood of Fionn, that Irish icon of long ago legend and myth, there is an interesting debate among Fionn and his friends as to what was the finest music in the world:
“Tell us that,” said Fionn turning to Osin.
“The cuckoo calling from the tree that is highest in the hedge,” cried his merry son.
“A good sound,” said Fionn. “And you, Oscar,” he asked, “what is to your mind the finest of music?”
“The top of music is the ring of a spear on a shield,” cried the stout lad.
“It is a good sound,” said Fionn.
And the other champions told their delight; the belling of a stag across water, the baying of a tuneful pack heard in the distance, the song of a lark, the laugh of a gleeful girl, or the whisper of a moved one.
“They are good sounds all,” said Fionn.
“Tell us, chief,” one ventured, “what you think?”
“The music of what happens,”
said great Fionn,
“that is the finest music in the world.”

And so as it happens is the music of my little daughter back from shopping with her Mammy and running to hug me...and not letting a new laid path stop her...her footsteps slowing down until I pluck her from there and hoist her in the air. Her little kisses and joy the only music in all my world. Could any man be richer than I with the music of what happens.
I walk my way down the hill
Boys of this town, once so alive and real
Long-expected, so fair and innocent
Walking the land with excitement

Hares and butterflies, nightmares and night skies
Their skins bare, hoping looks in their eyes

Night fell on their innocent banks
I cried as the moon sank
Where are my boys...
For i could not hear their loving voices

An empty room marked my longing
The cold autumn breeze caught my singing
My lullabies cold and frozen
For the path they had not chosen

Never grow up in my dreams
Just as the little stream
My boys swagger the day away
It is a long way
Anne Molony Mar 2019
A blue morning on the 46a to Stillorgan.
I get emotional gliding past the little orange town house. I've passed it every day for two years but this time it feels different.

I can smell your walls and furniture.
Can taste the breakfast you'd surprise me with after a long night of dancing and love making.
Can feel your head on my shoulder as you hold me at the kitchen counter.

You kiss my stomach.

On our last morning, you had driven me to college. Me, eating nutella and banana toast and you watching the roads too carefully. You had just gotten your license. Fionn Regan played softly.
Hannah McMullan Nov 2013
In my dream the other night,
I first heard a panicked mot's voice:

"Is me, mo ghile mear!
Cathain a thoicfaidh tú abhaile chugam?"


When light then entered my eyes,
I saw a young woman hunched o'er a table

She writing, quill in hand, to her man.
Like a ghost I hovered o'er her.

I saw the year, 1745
The year of the Jacobite.

I blinked my eyes
And my world went black.

Once opened again, I saw that time had passed
And a tear-stained letter lay on the desk.

Mo leannán fionn, the letter read
Tá me i ndeoraíocht.
Is ár bprionsa caillte.
A stór, mo ghrá thú, ach
Níl riamh feicfidh mé tu arís.


When I awoke that morn,
The ghosts of the lovers haunted me.

I pitied that mot, who lost her love forever to exile
I pitied that cove, exiled from his love forever.

Though only shades, their story
Is from the dawn of time.
1745 was the year of the Glenfinnan Uprising, one of the various Jacobite Uprisings, during which Prince Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charles/ár bprionsa [our prince])--a Catholic--attempted to claim the thrones of England, Ireland, and Scotland.  This uprising became the focus of many songs, both in Gaeilge and Gaidhlig.
Fionn 2d
I go by Finn, but with an o so its
Fionn
because in senior year I chose to do a project about Irish folklore,
well I had to do the project
but I could pick the topic
so I read Irish myths and told everyone about Fionn mcumhail and my little pocket knife’s namesake
in the Newton library I was looking up articles on folk-websites, the kinds with funny graphics
the sun was coming in through the windows and it got in my eyes
I was drinking seltzer and I crushed the can in my hand
when I hugged Lydia
the hug was hard and the water spilled on my shirt

i’m collecting all my sweet, translucent turbulent marble darlings
I’m breathing life into them

they were always mine and will never be anyone else’s
and no one gets to know when my feet were cold
or when i could only eat butter spaghetti for dinner
or what I got at CVS
or anything I ever told my “kids”
or ******* whatever else or the sun on my jeans when i walked on the charles
with my sunday school students.

On Ash wednesday I got some candy hearts, one of them was a # and the other said BAE
but there was no ‘call me’ or ‘fax me’ or even something contemporaneous like
‘text me’
like maybe we’ve aged out of those, I don’t know.
last saturday car put gel in my hair
and dust stuck to it so I had to shower and I found glitter
and donuts in Dupre
and we were greedy little silly boys, shoving stale, sticky sweetness down our throats.
We had soft cheese spread on bread with grant, too
who got his glasses broken by some guy a few months back, grant
who looks like elly pickette but with flat, blue hair
slicked down! and John lennon glasses, like gavin’s

on Saturday we sang Talking heads in owen’s room
and we had real irish whiskey, sipped it slow, let it burn in our throats
it didn’t feel like much, at least not too bad.
on Saturday, I felt so organically pleased it was almost frightening
look at my pretty friends! look at those angels.
they’re gonna go so far,

because I study with them sometimes
on days like Thursday when I read dylan thomas
and I just love them, so truly
not unafraid yet, but I do love them. i look at them looking at their books
and I feel grateful for a place such as the library
and I read this little think piece (when’s the last time you heard that word? I havent heard it in awhile )
about Mussolini, it was a satirical play.
and this Russian sentimental sonnet about the tropic sea
(oh but the sea, it does not raise its voice to me!)
and the oppressive sun,
like my third grade play (yikes)
and I wish I could tell people stories without laughing.

The saturday before the last last saturday
yamalí and I got an uber and we walked up
flights of winding stairs and learned about the golden horses on top of the statehouse
and someone rode on the horses
(but you can’t do that anymore.)

I dropped a bag of sleeptyime into my steeping cup of steaming tea
turmeric turned it this deep orange shade, sort of beautiful,
I turned up Marlena shaw
I sat and typed against my cinderblock wall, face to close to the screen as always,
comforted by that familiar return, the learned response to the stimuli,
and the unconsciously practiced
and I am not afraid of all the things I don’t know and
I have so much to learn and i have to do lots of things,
im going to try to make it all worth the while and gather memories
of time, my little friends.
2/19/24

— The End —