If I wasn't there
When Barney Devlin hammered
The midnight anvil
I still can hear it: twelve blows
Struck for the millennium.
His nephew heard it
In Edmonton, Alberta:
The cellular phone
Held high as a horse's ear,
Barney smiling to himself.
Afterwards I thought
Church bels beyond the starres heard.
And then imagined
Barney putting it to me:
"You'll maybe write a poem."
What I'll do instead
Is quote lines from "Blacksmith Shop":
It seems I was called
For this: to glorify things
Just because they are. That's it.
Also worth hearing:
Those waterburners shouting
In Middle English
"Huf, puf! Lus, bus! Col!" Such noise
On nights heard no one never.
And Owen Rua
Requesting Seamus MacGearailt
To forge him a spade
Clear-sheened, tapered and lightsome
And ringing true as a bell.
Where I mean to be,
For all that, this New Year's Eve
Is Hardy country,
Lychgate and hoarfrost country,
In search of a darkling thrush.