Rising | Colin Honnor

On the day of the rising
streets glowed from drizzle, bells
air sharp antiphon rang Eucharist peals

echoes; one out nesting, pulled
the brambles; one out salmon fly
fishing dipped bathed keep net

one snaring, lifted the game-
struggling looped wire; another
gave voice to his greyhounds

as they walked at noon
the red miles of their moment:
"we shall be changed then as light from dark..."

some said, had seen the men
of the Rising, transfigured, bloodied
as in a dream or trance

one with his rod and line; one
with his poached brace; one
showed shells' pale blue archipelago

fragile as ovoids, or a smile
or a lift of the hand, as if
the struck hour meant nothing less.

Colin Honnor is widely published in magazines in print and online, including: Bitterzoet, The Screech Owl, Eunoia Review, Crack the Spine, Poetry Bay, The Missing Slate, The Hour of Lead, Sentinel Journal, MessageinaBottle, Ataraxia, Miracle, InkSweatandTears, A New Ulster, The New Shetlander, Hark, Angle, Awen, Allegro and Inclement. He formerly edited Poetry and Audience, is a literary scholar, translator of modern European poetry and runs a fine arts press in the Cotswolds.