A Requiem for Brendan O Beirne
On the road to The Himalayas
The way was engraved across
The atlas of his heart
Compass pointed to true north
Snug in its binnacle in the pocket
Of the sheepskin lined coat
Among scraps of images
London, Scariff, Munich
And a houseboat on Lough Derg
On the bus to Katmandu
He snatched the snippets of songs
Like echoes across the sands
The Rock Band, Felix Bone
Beating out the bars of Heavy Metal
And The Kinks and Stones strumming
On Kate Hennessy’s record player
On the road back to Ennis
The memories of moments, days
And decades fitted as limestones
In the Burren, where he knew
The language of wild flowers
As a poet knows the vast essence
In the tiniest of things
And brings them to blossom
In his art
2
A mystic on a motorbike
Headlight illuminating
The pathways between
Every star with dazzling white
May he always blaze a trail
For us across the sky at night.
© Teri Murray 2011.
“A Requiem for Brendan O’Beirne” appeared in the 17 February 2012 edition of the Clare Champion.
