Welcome to Poetry Friday this week hosted here at Book Seed Studio. You will find a post about one of my favorite things in the whole world. I won’t give it away, but it usually involves wearing a swim suit and is very relaxing.
I’ve been looking at our old travel photos because I’ve been home so long. I went to Ireland in April 2016, when the world was a different place in so many ways. Was there really a time before the 2016 election?
Today I heard a piece on the news about how the pub owners in Ireland are enforcing the rules that Americans can’t come in until they quarantine for fourteen days. They don’t want another surge. I’m glad they’re doing the right thing.
One of the many things that struck me about Ireland were the brilliant shades of green that abound there. Moss grows thick in forests and enchants it, as if there really are leprechauns and faeries behind every rock and tree.
And as most teachers know who might be reading this, moss is a pioneer plant, like a lichen. It begins with a spore, and is one of the living things that can grow and thrive over time in a rock’s crevasse where there is little nourishment. Moss also grows and clings to tree bark in dark damp wooded places. Moss is a sign that the air is not polluted.
I wondered if moss harmed trees, but I discovered that generally it doesn’t. But when moss takes hold on rocks, it begins to collect pieces of loose soil blowing past and eventually, over time, breaks rock and turns it into soil.
MOSS It appears to just sit but it's working all day. Ask what you want, it has little to say. With fingers of steel, it breaks rock in two, turns it soil its equals are few. like worms spinning silk in cocoons inch by inch Moss makes the miraculous look like a cinch. © Janice Scully 2020
To further capture the mood of Ireland, the color green and moss, we need to hear the words and accent of an Irish poet. I’ll share a video of Seamus Heaney reading his poem “Digging.”
If you want to know more about Poetry Friday, you can find out here at Renee LaTulippe’s excellent blog for poets, No Water River.