Kevin
Mc Dermott

Elsewhere

The line of light at the horizon speaks

Of a world elsewhere.

The voices captured in the chimney speak 

Of a world elsewhere.

The clattering train switching tracks speaks

Of a world elsewhere. 

The swans struggling to rise into the air speak

Of a world elsewhere.

The lambs in the belly of the ewe speak

Of a world elsewhere.

The whispering syllables of a stranger’s tongue speak

Of a world elsewhere. 

The barbed-wire fence at the border crossing speaks

Of a world elsewhere.  

The angular shapes of ships and stacked containers speak

Of a world elsewhere.

The standing stones in the ancient circle speak

Of a world elsewhere.

The winter imagery in my dreams speaks

Of a world elsewhere.

The dead relatives in the black-and-white photograph speak

Of a world elsewhere.

The suitcases by the door speak

Of a world elsewhere.

I walk

        Forward                

                    Step by small

                                          Step towards

                                                               A world

                                                                          Elsewhere.      

Immanation of Silence

Time now to turn off the radio.

Time now to switch off the house lights.

Time now to stand still in this space.

Time now to allow

The immanation of silence.

Time now to confront the solitude.

Time now for the soul’s reckoning.

Time now to approach the foreshore of the mind.

I cross the rocks of the backshore.

I cross the berms and ridges.

I cross the oozy mud.

I cross the first waves.

I stand and face the horizon. 

I listen for the silence beyond the silence.

Kevin Mc Dermott is a Dublin-based writer. He is the author of six novels for young adults. His writing for radio includes plays, feature-length documentaries, essays and short stories. His poems have been published in journals and magazines and broadcast on RTE, the Irish national broadcast service.