Origin, Ireland: We Feel These Places Home Poem by Dennis Ryan

Friday, July 15, Sunday, July 17, and Wednesday, July 20,2022

"It is very difficult to find the beginning."
--Philippe Claudel, Les Âmes grises

"No one will ever see Sligo as we saw it."
-- An older W.B. Yeats in conversation with his sister Lily in 1936

We sense home in some faraway places,
and all along the way; we go back to long-lost,
long-forgotten beginnings, to remote places
along land, sea and shore, the beginning perhaps
a few old houses in the Silver Mountains south
of Nenagh, or southeast of Ballina, southwest
of Toomyvara, east of Castleconnel, closeby
Sliexekimalta—t'was there once, we reckon.
We lived along the sea in Kerry or Clare,
went back and forth, to and fro, to places
where Irish is still spoken: "Dia duit, "
and "Dia's Muire duit"in return.
And yes, "Go ne-eiri do bhothar leat."
Yes, we feel these places home—
like Yeats did Sligo in summer,
and in early winter snow.