Gravitational Pull of the Actual

A bit of wildness in our own backyard.

Home again.

" . . . you can be surprised by your own place."

--Rosita Boland, "A Secret Map of Ireland"

In his essay, "The Redress of Poetry," Seamus Heaney reminds us that the counter-reality of poetry can only be fully imagined within "the gravitational pull of the actual."

And so reality and actuality beckon: with the full recollection of the counter-reality suggested by the name of the town of Newbliss, near Annamakherrig, where I once spent lovely summer days and nights.

"Summer afternoon--Summer afternoon . . . the two most beautiful words in the English language."

--Henry James

"Poetry is not a luxury."

--Audre Lord