Sunday, April 10, 2016

How to Kill a Living Thing by Eibhlín Nic Eochaidh

                        Moonflower seeds sprouting in a sunny window---

How to Kill a Living Thing

Neglect it
Criticize it to its face
Say how it kills the light
Traps all the rubbish
Bores you with its green

Continually
Harden your heart
Then
Cut it down close
To the root as possible

Forget it
For a week or a month
Return with an axe
Split it with one blow
Insert a stone

To keep the wound wide open.

—Eibhlín Nic Eochaidh

2 comments:

erin said...

oh. i know this poem. i've known people who hurt like this, on both sides.

it is a painful and truthful poem. (from the anthology you sent to me all those years ago? maybe... and james and i have recently acquired another of series, being alive, which is also very good!!)

your green sprouts!

and i have just noticed the (green) christmas tree which we had chucked into the backyard in the new year is now covered in a fresh layer of snow. i go out to walk in new snow falling. april in canada! :)

Marion said...

Oh, Erin! How you've fed my spirit and soul for these many years!! The time has flown since we "met" here in bloggerland. I laugh because just a few weeks ago I also discovered the book you mentioned and ordered a used copy online. It's a great anthology, too, almost as good as "Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times". We seem to be in some parallel universe at times.

Yes, this poem always touches me and just popped into my head this morning as I was planting my tomatoes. LOL! And you sit there with snow in your backyard! Unimaginable to me. I'll be planting my Moonflowers next week. Thanks for being such a sweet friend. xo