The Inspiring

As you rummage of a morning
among dust-furred personal effects
jumbled in an old
wooden suitcase under a bed

and seeming to belong to no-one,
you find a woman
about whom the world, if it ever
supposed at all, supposed

only that she quietly got by,
has remained hidden for decades
in the shape of a book
of hand-written ballads, or in

a crackly recording
of fiddle music or song.  But what
grips is the shiver
when you realise that the stranger –

fervent, fierce,
pent-up for so long – is released,
lisping or lilting there
until the open, awoken heart

is yours and yours alone.
With a sigh you go
back to the chores of household
and haggard – but now

you can never wholly go.  You have
become altered, stirred
to loose, it will take
a lifetime, the cry of self-discovery.

 

Patrick Deeley is a poet, memoirist and children’s writer from Loughrea.  Keepsake, his eighth collection with Dedalus Press, appeared in 2024.
www.patrickdeeley.com