Irish Mutterings

Where is the old Irish half-day gone?
Chewed up by the greedy Celtic Tiger,
the half-day that left sleepy towns and villages even sleepier,
that well deserved time to take your time even more,
has been replaced by the hamster wheel.
Being idle is not permitted anymore.
It has been declared a public offense.
We never knew what we had,
but we were fooled to believe,
that we were better off joining the continental lifestyle.
To become Europeans
Now many of us have lost their souls,
in big wallets full of plastic cards,
and in huge houses with no stories to be told anymore
but with wifi in every room.
Big are the houses alright, but not cosy enough
to spend an unscheduled half-day.
O thee witnesses of change,
these bygone days shall be no more.
It can’t be helped,
so do not dwell upon it.
Pursue happiness leisurely
and resist all the rushing around –
we used to know better
you go nowhere
you go nowhere in a rush!

I’m reborn and unwinding as a snake
surfacing from the depth of the lake
a legendary man drove me in for my sin
16 centuries later I uncoil and rise again.

Paddy, Paddy, Paddy
you’ve been a bad laddy,
you broke the eternal spiral and drove out the magic snakes
out of the forests and fields into the sea , into the lakes

your religion didn’t teach you to respect
mother nature and to protect the sacred life
and you yourself did not bother to reflect
that the snake always is born again and will survive

so on this spring day we celebrate the snake
with an ancient chant that makes us shake
and we invite the coming of the light
we will dance in spirals through the night.

(chant)
rise mighty and eternal Snake
get rid of all the fake!

(written at University College Cork, under a CCTV high definition surveillance camera after a Big Brother voice from nowhere said: what are you doing there? you are obstructing the traffic. which I did not actually do as a lot of cars were passing me by)

the limitations of the mind
are not too hard to find
they are here and there – They are everywhere
they are straight and square
these limitations cause separation
the annihilation of the free and natural flow
how low are you willing to go
just relax , straighten your backs and allow a curvy and wiggly line
the free flow is natural and will do just fine
even at UCC you can be free
to open your mind
and take in everything
you see see

Hey digger man – you’ re a big boy now
hey digger man – you’re playing with a big toy now
Hey digger man – you have to assume responsibility
you should not harm or tear out any tree
a tree is a living being
with similar feeling like you and me
only interfere if you really must to a minimal degree
nature is perfect – so leave it be

there were these strong gales in spring 2014 in Ireland
four or five of them in short succession
many roofs have been damaged
many trees broke off or were unrooted
the power of nature, powerful in deed
the human achievements are temporary
not lasting forever at all
everything that grows too big or too tall will fall
maybe there’s an advantage in being modest and small
maybe it’s a wake up call for all
without strong roots there will be no fruits
flexibility and modesty are true virtues
indeed very important – not only for a tree.

jailed in the comfy confinement of my Cork opera house seat
listening to the Tuareg band Tinariwen
music from the desert exported to the desert of a city
there was no chance for my dancing feet
and finally I got up driven by the rhythm
and I danced in the empty aisle
and the singer gave me a smile …

its not cool
to waste
its not cool
to be wasted
its not cool
to work in order to waste or being wasted
its not cool
to declare something waste which is not waste
its not cool
to waste what can be used
its not cool
to waste anything at all
its not cool
to waste your lifetime to work to then waste
its not cool
to be a stupid fool
its not cool
to pollute the pool
its not cool
but it seems to be the rule
its not cool
to be ruled by the brainwash rules
so don’t copy, don’t copy the fools
use your own power tools
it’s cool to be no fool

a wild November day out at Long Strand
we saw the high waves rolling in
mist and spray and white horses in the gusting wind
only the quivering and forlorn foam on the wet sand
and a flask of hot coffee to return to in the car
and 3 dogs at home waiting for our return

God Bless and all the mess
a drink and a laugh and all the rest
sophisticated crudeness
crude sophistication
there is always a chance to confess
fuck all and everything
you can’t call it rudeness

nothing is black or white. especially not sounds. At noon the serene bell still rings softly despite all, but even nowadays in 2014, in a post-celtic-tiger society, the rushing still gets a little bit slower. The bottom does not drop out of the bucket anymore as in the last centuries. Even during that short and almost nervous slow down, it seems we still have to pay homage to the rat race, except for a very few who never believed in the whole thing and refuse to go along with anything. These few men and women still smile, oblivious to the world for one minute or longer, a moment of relief, maybe even without religion, dropping into unscheduled timelessness, connecting with ….. the source.

Looking down onto the floor of the consultation room in Bantry Hospital, stains of worry, real ones / not imagined, the linoleum never being replaced in many decades due to lack of funding.

There is no necessity either, after all we only walk on it, patients, doctors, nurses, all alike. But the reality of it feels like an anachronism in these modern times of the western civilization, telling the true story of imperfection rather than the perfect cover up with an immaculate floor. No immaculate conception here. At least these stains are honest, but we don’t like to see them there on the floor, so we look up to the ceiling for salvation, only to stare into a clean and clinical neon light, the cold strip light that strips us of our warm humanity and makes us look down again to seek comfort in the worrying stains. We try not to picture where they actually come from. We won’t go there. At least most people walk out of here, maybe even over the stains.

I arrived more towards the end.
the people present had their conversations
whispering with a low voice in the echoing church
why were they not speaking, if they needed to ?
or just being quiet altogether, out of respect ?
people arrived and went.
they kept whispering
like naughty school children
afraid to be punished by the teacher
or maybe even punished by God
the God who man had created long time ago
for many reasons or no reason at all.
no one dared to speak out loud in the church that day
even not in humble honesty and from the depth of their hearts
or about any event during the life of Gerald.
the echo of the church would have carried each word
without a doubt!

his son in the first row looked uncomfortable
and all of a sudden had inherited his fathers facial expression.
it was a long wait.
people arrived and went.
that’s how it always had been done.
I realized I was the only blow-in present in this close knit community
paying my last respects to a friendly and always cheerful neighbour.
I felt like playing the harmonica that I happened to have in my pocket.
A kind of last offering to Gerald.
I didn’t. I didn’t want to cause any upset,
didn’t want to break the rules that I was not sure about for the sake of the son.
it was my silent farewell to my neighbour.

Words in big letters on an old tea chest
and lots of meandering feet on 60s linoleum floors
open doors, lots of people in Anah’s basement
noisiness rising
alcohol levels too
the usual good times I suppose
I keep writing not to miss the flow
I keep writing to stop thinking
while others keep on drinking
Ballydehob is upside down
somebody exclaims
upside down
thats what happens normally anyway
as well as downside up
after the time gets timeless
and people mingle and mingle
Sean the gardener finds it noisy too
also kind of claustrophobic
he prefers the open landscape
and I’m trying to escape too
nothing much to say
just sitting and watching
my son Rafael is unimpressed
he keeps playing his gadget
he lives momentarily in another world
for a spell
so do I
I suspect everybody else too
that’s the way it is

we need to touch the ground
come back to earth
and move, groove, dance
action speaks louder than words
louder than all the noisiness

and at the end of the pain
the songs stop coming in
and finally the emptiness feels full
nothing bothers me much anymore
and I’m out of the door
I just walked from the inside out
and the outside is walking in at the same time
sinking like a stone in water
and I remember again
that happiness is a short innocent moment
without a song
no noise at all
but not silent
just an exquisite explosion
that can be felt all through the universe

on a visit to the city of Cork
I stood at a crossroads looking around
an old gentleman stopped and asked me
“are you lost?”
without thinking I replied
“not really,`I’m only wondering where to go next”

I surrender to the greenness,
the grayness and the wind
I breathe towards change
in the knowledge of the sun
every raindrop caresses my skin

tidal + idle …
tuning out + in …
Inish here – Inish there …
spaced in and out …
everywhere and nowehere …
idle + tidal
in-ish ear

let the sunshine shine today
on a rainy day
and sing this song
and drum along
it can’t be wrong