Loughtagalla Times

Premier Writing showcases poetry, essays and short fiction by new and emerging Irish writers. This week’s featured poet is Larry Doherty from Thurles.

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Poetry

Scrabble

The fading, dog-eared scrabble board lays
atop their cleared kitchen table between
the pair of them, the elderly couple,
as they studiously, competitively keep score.

A huge score – eleven children across,
ninety odd years down, points earned
for feeding, clothing, educating…
double points for nurturing good nature, morals,

critical thinking; treble for love, understanding.
Constant consonants selflessly created solid
framework of character; connected and combined
by those invaluable vowels a, e,

I owe you – both, everything.

Robin

Robin…all he has to do
Is look at me.

My father –
telling all the stories…
how he’s doing
how I’m doing…
am I going back to Mass…

Robin…who spirited through
the open window,
and perched on his bedrail,
right before
he marbled to monument. Robin…haunts now…
re-minding.

Ghosts

Ghosts leave no footprints,
even in freshly fallen snow.
Just as well!

But they can, I imagine,
hover in one spot,
without hardly taking a breath…

Like a hummingbird,
dragonfly, bird of prey…
or a nosey neighbour
scanning a lover
arriving to your door.

Skeletons in the cupboard
rarely shake, rattle or roll.
They prefer to quietly release
spirits of times past
like sad music,
atmospherically…
They can do that, you know.

Sometimes ghosts haunt
just by hanging about fairy bushes,
or graveyards,
rattling chains…
and visitors –
the dying branches
of family trees;
or just by floating around those
who deserve to be ghosted.

But most often they just silently revisit,
and hug us,
when we least expect it…

and make us cry.

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About the author:

Larry Doherty published his first book of poetry, The State of Us, in 2020, and plans to publish his second collection this year. He has formed a Poetry Writing Group in Thurles, and is the founder and one of the active organisers of Circling The Square Poetry Festival, which commemorates the late Thurles-born poet, Dennis O’Driscoll. The event is regarded as one of the foremost festivals of its kind in Ireland, and will take place this year over the weekend of 16th to 18th of October. Larry lived in Dublin for much of his life before retiring twelve years ago to live in Thurles, the town where he was born and reared.

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