Tuesday Poem: O’Grady in Kinsale (I.m. of Desmond O’Grady)

He’s hidden everywhere in this harbour, not

around the Old Head; keeping a weather eye

for that chance salmon’s jump. A look of classical

anarchy, green scarf streaming behind, donning

a traditional red smock — off for his pint

of breakfast at the Scilly club where he’ll debate

the catch of the day with seamen, pronouncing

the gospel according to O’Grady for the latest

blow-in: ‘Hail Mary full of Yeats!’ Crowing

at tourists not to get caught at Limerick junction.

At dusk he disappears up the back road to his nest

on top of the hill, arched over his desk till late,

resurrecting dead tongues into a modern idiom.

I spot him at the bar later, aquamarine eyes poring

over a paper, then like a skunk in the night he skulks

out — nose to the ground, muttering nothings

to an old ghost — the door pounding after him.

Adam Wyeth lives in West Cork. In 2004, Wyeth directed the documentary A Life in the Day of Desmond O’Grady. Wyeth’s latest book, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry (Salmon) is dedicated to the late poet and contains O’Grady’s poem ‘The Old Ways’ followed by an essay/close reading.