POEM BY BETHANY W. POPE ON THE DEATH OF SEAMUS HEANEY

Walk on air

S.H.

A morning progressing in the usual manner, that

Gorgeous every-day glory we’ve almost gone numb to. The

Awful music blared the moment you went from us, far

Into the woods where Mad Sweeney roamed, his hajj

Now yours. Did you pass your father, digging time, tau

Spuds in golden ratio? Did you pass Aunt Mary, broad,

Teaching love with a goose’s wing and a scoop sunk snug,

Years of flour fading its gleam? I hope there was a tree

Outside your window to link you into the firm

Unending network of eternal life. And all the while,

Remember, I was unconscious of your pain.

Beating my legs against a machine, an animal that

Escaped, so far, the pit that you fell into. Seamus,

The gym seemed silent, my muscles spent, feeling your death.

Bethany W. Pope is an award winning author of the LBA, and a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Awards. She was a runner up for the Cinnamon Press Novel Competition. She received her PhD from Aberystwyth University’s Creative Writing program. Her first poetry collection, A Radiance was published by Cultured Llama Press last June. Her second collection, Crown of Thorns, was published by Oneiros Books this August. Her third collection, Persephone in the Underworld has been accepted by Rufus Books and shall be released in 2016. Her first chapbook The Gospel of Flies has been accepted by Writing Knights Press and will be released in 2014.

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