by Macdara Woods.

The fiddler in the cave
holds back the sea:
the firbolgs planted the land like this

the smoky kitchen
candle-light
on mother of pearl:

This side of the portal
let me feel it
let me put
my hand there let me
hold it
touch it
feel it

let me somehow stay connected

This poem first appeared in Cyphers 56, in 2004. It is part of a sequence written by Macdara Woods (1942-2018), to accompany a recital of Bach’s cello suites, arranged for the double bass by Richard Hartshorne. The sequence appears in his Collected Poems (Dedalus, 2012) and the poem is reproduced with the permission of the author’s estate and Dedalus Press.