Gerry Loose

from 'The Great Book of the Woods': 'Palimpsests & Riddles' (after the Ogham)

Cover of 'The Great Book of the Woods.'
Cover of 'The Great Book of the Woods.'

[From the edition newly published by Xylem Books, an imprint of Corbel Stone Press, 2020. See the author’s note below for more on Loose’s engagement with the ancient Ogham runes.]

 

Knockshanawee souterrain

 

 

a trick of the neck

is yew to pine

 

a trick of lungs

is pine to alder

 

a ruse of the voice track

is alder to yew

 

a trick of love

is brother to brother

 

a trick of darklight divine

is twin to twin

 

 

Knockshanawee souterrain riddle

 

it is cold

is there frost

 

there are thorns

are they pricking

 

there is a resolution

is it legion

 

there is clamour

is there silence

 

the wood is ancient

is it withered

 

there are crypts

is it an effort

 

 

Ballyknock short discourse

 

right to the marrow

flame & steel

 

elegant & forthright

oldest & coldest

 

felloe & tang

vanguard & bevy

 

pine & groan

swaddle & mass grave

 

 

Ballyknock riddle

 

sing us thorn

cleave us friend

 

not complaint

not rebuttal

 

soothe us horse

smooth us work

 

not effort

in soil

 

shelter us hind

sing us strength

 

flesh & grass

twining

 

 

Ballyknock letters swimming

 

hazel & pine then oak

start with these

 

their twists & torques

sisters to birch

 

they are the red boast

of sibling women

 

calling & scolding

sparks from speckled fire

 

 

Ballyknock from the lungs

 

 

the ash field

the oldest energy

 

the path of the voice

iron rod of breath

 

the driving of slaves

a proverb of slaughter

 

one third wheel

one third weapon

 

begin your answer, pine

call your nut-marrow, hazel

 

 

Ballyknock riddle

 

what thorn

& who’s a friend of lesion

 

what work is smooth

& who helps geldings

 

what guards

& who spills

 

what is simplicity

& who delights in kine

 

what lives cold

& who cultivates plants

 

what pain

& who replies

 

 

Cloghane Carhane

 

was she a friend

women fight

here among the ivy

now I begin to see    lust

in the ivy

women fighting

bees swarming

 

now we’re all angry

should be

taking stock

minding cattle

was she a friend

thief of the grove of silence

lust

drains blood

boils my blood

was she a friend

 

 

Cloghane Carhane

underneath his name

 

carpenter’s work

 

it starts to make sense

hazel

it starts to make sense

alder

the most withered wood

 

the job in hand

 

clarity

 

cutting

the highest of bushes

ivy

nettles

the most decayed wood

 

it answers muster

the elm

the apple

forest & orchard

& the hazel

 

 

Abernethy

 

coltsfoot the apple that suckles

sun hoof the vine that strangles

sun horse the yew that sickens

 

 

Abernethy

 

    quick        gentle

 

 

    so hard to quell

 

                  

                       elder

 

 

the hind   the hunt

 

               quenched

 

 

                       elder

 

 

Church of the 3 Holy Brethren

Lochgoilhead

 

little saint of whitethorn

little douser of wolf spark

welcome to the burial mounds

 

dear confessor of blood-red berries

sweet dweller of beehive cell

oaks make good gallow-trees

 

my heart

meagre

 

 

Church of the 3 Holy Brethren

Lochgoilhead

 

bees have their own pollen auguries

 

there are thirteen

 

of blanching night

 

of swarming death

 

of chilling earth

 

 

of propagating plants

 

of lustrous herb

 

of the infirmity of tone

 

& six contained

 

in the thicket of letters

 

 

AUTHORS NOTE. Ogham is a rune-like script of the early Irish language found on standing stones made between the fourth and eighth centuries CE. It comprises strokes across or to either side of a central stem line. Each stroke now represents a letter of the Gaelic Beith-luis-nin “alphabet.” It is found on monoliths mainly in Ireland, with some in Scotland, and some dual-text ogham/Latin stones in Wales. There are also inscriptions other than the monolithic — on tools or in caves — but these are rare.

 

There are numerous myths concerning the script’s origins: that it was invented to keep secrets from the Roman conquerors of nearby Britain; that it was similarly invented to keep secrets from the lands that Ireland was later to annexe as Dal Riada (the islands and mainland of western Scotland); that it was invented by an obscure fourth-century CE Christian sect. It is also said in some quarters that it was handed down by, or named for, Ogmos, the Celtic god of eloquence.

 

There are many methods of interpreting ogham. The script itself is steeped in the secrecy of the literate over the nonliterate. It is therefore always regarded as the property of the high poets, the early medieval fili of Ireland, who would spend many years memorizing up to fifty ways of reading or deciphering it. The poetic possibilities are therefore manifold.

. . . . . . .

The poems here are therefore versions, creative reinventions and cocreations, made with other poets and translators who lived from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries CE.

 

[N.B. Much more of this commentary is included in Loose’s very useful introduction to his book, and additional excerpts can be found elsewhere on Poems and Poetics. (j.r.)]