Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A Wexford travelogue


One of my favourite things to do in my past life was to head down to "the Hook", back in county Wexford and recharge the batteries. It is my favourite place in the world and always will be, I am almost 7 years out and memories fade so I write in a rush and remember the journey!

Out, out , out
We escape the chugging greyness
that is the town
On a sodden spring morning
Clearing the ‘skirts as we head out
Past Ballymorris on the new line
Which hasn’t been new since 1798
& then some…
Down the country we spin
Gaining momentum as we drive
The Hook & all her secrets are beckoning
Past the Mountain bar
Past the redshire road
We’re on the forth mountain’s slope
riding the sill of a stretch
that looks out on the plains of Bargy
Kilmore in the distance
peeping gently into the sea
Like an oul’one dipping her toe
Along the Coast
Looming in the mist
Is The Hook & all her secrets
The long descent down
into the Bridge of Wellington
over that hump
past the ruins of Clonmines
and on we go
on the line, the new line known as
the tramp’s heartbreak
a ramrod straight ribbon
of tarmac, glistening & steaming
in the warming rays of the sun
On & on we go
A happy crowd we are
Heading to the hook & all her secrets
turning off the line eventually
and rolling down the coast
past Dollar bay & Booley bay
through Templetown
& her Templar’s Church
A sharp right
And we hurtle on
Loftus hall grimaces
As we fly past
The Deerpark Pillars
We slow to a stately gait
The Slade junction,
Right again
Past the ancient church
& those asleep in her yard
Blowholes & sea spray
the limestone plateau

On which sits
The lighthouse tower
That knows no age
Announcing our arrival
is the Hook & all her secrets

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