Michael O'Sullivan

When ashes ventured to Heraclitus
That more things may exist than fire
He disappeared into a sunny gap
Created by foreshortening of his stride.
...

Only when homeless
Did I discover
I was the sole and sanguine heir
To two family graves.
...

Having no chronmetric choice
The clock ticks on, yet in its shadow
Lurks a deeper time with hands
Of teeming flesh. Keats measured
...

No shapes nor fine geographies will spring
Around me on this Island place.
I study water worrying a rock and know
How countless eyes have seen this present glint,
...

All expectations
Crushed
I opened
My coffin lid
...

You felt the stars were angels when you walked
The four miles into Midleton for the matinee.
Your mother had to explain how they were human,
That Deanna Durbin was a breathing being,
...

-Why do we draw?
-Because we can't see.
...

A shiver spoils her lovemoan, he can tell:
The lines of love's equation are almost parallel.
...

Why did their lustre fade?
Yet with men too age seldom delays:
He thrives a seeming lifetime to discover
He's old within the moment of her gaze.
...

You will awaken
in an estuary
where
...

The more I try
To clean
Our mirror
The dirtier
...

If I turned toward you
Who would answer

The vine?
...

Your sins
are the only
true foundation.
I stand
...

Be but with Chance, that windowed sepulchre,
From whose sweet vantage, you will espy her care;
Her beauty from an accidental tower
Reveals and unreveals, as you despair!
...

A man in a conference
Screams out a lifetime's anger.
But his hand beneath the desk
Caresses the rough wood.
...

Because I love the sun
I want it to rain properly.
...

Look into your heart
You'll find a need for courage
So immense
That multitudes are waiting
...

Our house is divided
Between love and love.
We do not need hatred
To be the masters of love.
...

In Japan they fall on their swords.
In Ireland we fall on our ambiguity.
...

Life's essence
Is not the dead body
In the lane.

It's the love-scene
...