This is Episode 31 of Poems to Live Well By.

Today’s poem is Landmarks by Breda Wall Ryan, an Irish writer and poet who deserves wider attention.

She has published two collections of poetry, In a Hare’s Eye and Raven Mothers. Her poems are full of powerful imagery, and she often brings the lives of women into sharp focus.

This poem, “Landmarks”, is a poem about place and memory and the connection between the two. You can read the poem here.

[A short note on the text: There are a number of Irish or Gaelic phrases in the poem. The first is lios, which means a ringfort or fairy fort, commonplace in old Irish fields where human culture stretches back thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of years. The other Irish phrases are a list of the names of fields. In the Irish landscape, every field always had a name.]

Music Credit:

Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/  | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com