Poetic Keys An Ode to County Clare - Oughtmama [McCormick]

0:00This feature, poetic ease and note to countercler has been funded by Kommeshowne Maan with the television license fee.

1:30This mama is a parish in North Claire. In one of its valleys is a mysterious and lesser known monastic ruin of the same name. This monastic site is said to predate the much better known Kirkham Row, Abbey, which lies now in ruins in that same valley. I often think of the Burren region of County Claire as a phenomenal place when thinking about the element of stillness. All over Ireland we are blessed with ready access to fresh water, but in the porous, limestone of North Claire, there is a palpable sense of the movement of the streams flowing beneath our feet. The cave systems and streams all helping the fresh water drain ultimately toward the sea. In pre-Christian mythology are people's attributed mountains and bodies of water as the living place of gods and goddesses. This poem opens with this reference, and I hear this poem as a reclamation of a sense of spirituality for the millennial generation, for which Marlene speaks.

2:33The trauma of the loss of spiritual community and religious amnesia we are experiencing for better and for worse is making itself felt across our society today. One positive way this is being felt is the appetite and curiosity for ancient places and traditional cultures in our post-modern world. May this poem be your invitation to run your boots and walk the mountain path to the places that inspire you to stillness in all its hidden movement. The mountain goddess waits a golden arm of winter grass welcomes you beyond yourself.

3:35Aons staged in stepped and swirling limestone draw you closer, round your feet streams unseen, trickle and trip, divining ways to commit you to their flow. At the well stillness, a fulcrum of stillness amongst this confluence of water and time, tasting revelation you turn back, burdened and blessed by the road ahead. This feature, poetic keys and old to counterclair, has been funded by Kommesh Yunnanman with the television license fee.