We Feel These Places Home Poem by Dennis Ryan

June 17,2008

"It is very difficult to find the beginning."
- Philippe Claudel

We sense home in some places,
all along the way going there,
to a beginning we don't exactly
understand, along sea and shore,
the beginning maybe a few old houses
in the Silver Mountains south of Nenagh,
southeast of Ballina, southwest of Toomyvara,
east of Castleconnel, closeby Sliexekimalta;
t'was there once, we reckon.We lived
on the sea in Kerry and Clare, went back
and forth, from andto these places where
the Irish still say "Dia duit, " and "Dia's Muire duit"
in return.And yes, "Go ne-eiri do bhothar leat."
Yes, these are the places we feel home, the way
Yeats felt in Sligo, the fields ascending under
Ben Bulbenin summer, andin winter snow.