is an Irish tune I’m learning to play
on the fiddle, an 1840’s lament, in key
of D – about the drowning of a teacher’s
books, lost at sea: a library of treasured
texts, a lifetime’s collection, enough to
fill the boat. More than affection, a love,
a promise to protect – and the waves were
obliging in keeping this marriage afloat –
no storm or wind to speak of. But there
were other auspices: singular rocks defying
such open attachment, buoyed by wet spray
of passion – a sin – turning the craft over,
its cargo cast into the deep, pages loosened
from covers like sails torn from a masthead,
curling into themselves; ink leaching, words,
dissolving into bubbles... Until ...water’s
healing alchemy, transmutation – tiny orbs
growing fishy tails, gathering into shoals of
dark quavers, glass-eyed minims – surfacing
into memory as song.
Song: Amhrán na Leabhar (Song of the Books)
-Pete Mullineaux
Pete Mullineaux's 5th collection We are the Walrus was featured on the cover of World Wildlife Fund's magazine 'The Circle'. He won the 2023 Home-stage competition for an environmental poetry film.
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