The Grammar of Repair – a poem by Ted Mc Carthy

The Grammar of Repair 

White Baltic churches, a low barn in Vermont,
the eye needs something solid to rest on,
simple, heat-holding. Even the imagination
greys from so much rain. Before this week
the phrase an angry sky seemed clumsy, foolish,
its use a casting round in choppy waters.
But here we are. What else can we say?

Except that there is always high ground, 
a retreat, for the mind at least, 
and the generosity of words, reminding that beneath
mud and misery proceeds an endless
filtering; that tomorrow or next week will see
a thousand streams, each clear and singular,
their spills and turns, the grammar of repair.

Ted Mc Carthy is a poet, translator and playwright living in Clones, Ireland. His work has appeared in magazines in Ireland, the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia. He has had two collections published, ‘November Wedding’, and ‘Beverly Downs’.

His work can be found on www.tedmccarthyspoetry.weebly.com