Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

Marguerite M. Rivas was inspired to write this poem by the emotional history of her grandmother who was the 13th child of 13 children born over a 30 year period to Annie McAldridge of Ballymoney, a small town in Co. Antrim. The family story has all the ingredients of a great novel, humble origins, struggles with life, sad endings and new beginnings. Her poem echoes it all but casts a much bigger shadow than the story itself.

Marguerite María Rivas teaches English at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Her work has been published in The Americas Review, Earth's Daughters, Multicultural Review, Waterways, Changing English, among other publications. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Marg Chandler Memorial Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Her book of poems, Laughter, Hope & a Sock in the Eye is forthcoming from Villa Florentine Press in the fall.

If I Were in Ireland Now

If I were in Ireland now,
I'd rest in a peat bog, close my eyes,
and let it take me down to nothingness
no weariness, no sorrow, no hunger.
Below tufts of purpling heather
I'd be Ballymoney turf
and welcome soft oblivion
home and now home again.

Still I'm sure a century from now,
some faithful Irish poet,
one who shares my blood,
would bid her sisters take up their sleans
cut me out and lift me up,
rest me gently beneath the sun to dry,
then carry me home once more.

And these faithful Irish women,
ones who share my blood,
would place me in the fire
where I'd warm them and illuminate
their faces and their souls
as their laughter banishes sorrow.

And there as blue smoke rises,
a searching, Irish poet,
one who shares my blood,
would sit serenely at my hearth,
and spy me in the flames
as the lovesome breath of poetry
and the faithful Irish women
bring me home to Glengad again.

© Marguerite M. Rivas