Human Spirit

Each calamity
a nation suffers
brings tragedy
amid despair;
bombs fall,
planes crash,
cataclysmic moments
written into
history books:
broken bodies,
buried, innocent
families fragile
left to suffer:
yet voices
of children
are forged,
as we begin again.
Confusion causes
tension, panic,
without moments
like these
we stagnate:
fail to face
our differences
our pinched
prejudices:
all move forward
the human spirit
never dies.

Clyde Road

On Clyde Road
I see a facade
of lemon curtains
where tall tress
with ringlets
create a canopy
over pedestrians.
When cars disturb
this monastic space
a shower of seeds
parachutes over
the concrete road
leaving me enfolded
in a satiny case.

^

Biography

Mary Guckian is an Irish poet. Her most recent poems are published in Studies. She won the Leitrim Guardian Literary Award in 2003. Mary has published two collections, Perfume of the Soil (Swan Press 1999) and The Road to Gowel (Swan Press 2000). She won the Golden Pen Award for poems published in Art Arena over the past year.