New Years Day At Powerscourt. Poem by Bernard Kennedy

In college philosophy I read Camus- La Peste. And now with Covid 19 about it seems a replay. The warnings given to stay home, wear mask and sanitise keep apart.
Enniskerry village empty on New Years Day and Powerscourt within five kilometres I go to the garden.
Acer, Redwood, and myriad display overseen by Sugar loaf mountain. Roses within the walls.
The walled garden with its gates from a sacred place making the garden a mystical point.
Mount Horeb, Sinai, Tabor, all places of divine encounter. And maybe Sugar loaf too.
The fountain near Lady Julia memory, and from the pond below near where pets lie.
Gardens are a sacred place and here Italianite origins draw us in to where divine is local.
In the middle eastern thought a garden is where divine encounters happen.