I And then there was Saint Kevin and the blackbird. The saint is kneeling, arms stretched out, inside His cell, but the cell is narrow, so
One turned-up palm is out the window, stiff As a crossbeam, when a blackbird lands And lays in it and settles down to nest.
Kevin feels the warm eggs, the small breast, the tucked Neat hand and claws and, finding himself linked Into the network of eternal life,
Is moved to pity: now he must hold his hand Like a branch out in the sun and rain for weeks Until the young are hatched and fledged and flown.
II And since the whole thing's imagined anyhow, Imagine being Kevin. Which is he: Self-forgetful or in agony all the time
From the neck on out down through his hurting forearms? Are his fingers sleeping? Does he still feel his knees? Or has the shut-eyed blank of underneath
Crept up through him? Is there distance in his head? Alone and mirrored clear in love's deep river, "To labour and not to seek reward," he prays,
A prayer his body makes entirely For he has forgotten self, forgotten bird And on the riverbank forgotten the river's name.
A gamcha (or gamocha [ga=body, mocha=wipe]) is a thin, coarse, traditional cotton towel worn in South and Southeast Asia, used to dry the body after bathing or wiping sweat. It may be worn as a scarf, on one side of the shoulder, or as knee-length loin cloths.
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And then there was Saint Kevin and the blackbird.
The saint is kneeling, arms stretched out, inside
His cell, but the cell is narrow, so
One turned-up palm is out the window, stiff
As a crossbeam, when a blackbird lands
And lays in it and settles down to nest.
Kevin feels the warm eggs, the small breast, the tucked
Neat hand and claws and, finding himself linked
Into the network of eternal life,
Is moved to pity: now he must hold his hand
Like a branch out in the sun and rain for weeks
Until the young are hatched and fledged and flown.
II
And since the whole thing's imagined anyhow,
Imagine being Kevin. Which is he:
Self-forgetful or in agony all the time
From the neck on out down through his hurting forearms?
Are his fingers sleeping? Does he still feel his knees?
Or has the shut-eyed blank of underneath
Crept up through him? Is there distance in his head?
Alone and mirrored clear in love's deep river,
"To labour and not to seek reward," he prays,
A prayer his body makes entirely
For he has forgotten self, forgotten bird
And on the riverbank forgotten the river's name.
--Seamus Heaney
A gamcha (or gamocha [ga=body, mocha=wipe]) is a thin, coarse, traditional cotton towel worn in South and Southeast Asia, used to dry the body after bathing or wiping sweat. It may be worn as a scarf, on one side of the shoulder, or as knee-length loin cloths.
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