Dermot Healy Poems

Sometimes the moon

gets caught in the high branches
...

When Peggy was dying

Her son leaned over to whisper
...

Not till I'd seen

the old chiefs
...

The moon above Sligo
Is not
The moon above Mayo.
...

Praise be the hares on Oyster
As they curl on the stone beach
And look across at Rosses!
...

They fly over like flagships of the devil

with messages between the dead.
...

Out to sea

there is the snap of a castanet,
...

The sea is on nights.
The horizon is an empty factory floor,
If you step outside
You'll see the day shift.
...