Winter Comes to the Burren

Winter Comes to the Burren

On grey bulge above pastoral green fields,
brought forth by ancient icy watershed
carved still by salted force that never yields.

The springtime odds-breaker, that crept and wed
into dark cold grey stone gap to cower,
needing only the smallest space to spread.

In ‘grykes’, bloomed petals of summer’s hour -
Wild Iris, Spotted Orchids; in sunbath;
Burnt Rose, Carline thistle, Cuckoo flower.

Autumn, which tastes of its salt weary path
that push winds here, soon tramples the flora;
lie wasted in winter’s stampede of death.

Element’s stunning, winter’s pandora,
on fractured, fissured, yet furtive landscape.
A simple beauty anew ‘begorra’

Now slowly, natural cycles reshape.



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Notes:
Terza Rima form - in pentameter:  aba, bcb, cdc, etc.
‘grykes’ – the deep cracks in limestone
‘begorra’ – irish for ‘by God’

The 'Burren' is a huge limestone area in the green fields of County Clare.  The word is derived from the Gaelic bhoireann meaning a 'barren stony place', and it has often been described as a limestone desert.  But while appearing bare and lifeless from a distance, it is a locality that is unbelievably productive and rich in flora.  The ice age forced arctic and alpine plants far southward where they reached this area and have remained, while the warm waters of the Gulf Stream flowing up the west coast of Ireland encouraged the growth of more southerly Mediterranean plants, so that this is the only place in Europe where many of these species exist side by side.

Note: this poem is part of a collection, to read more please see:  "Ireland "  E: Barúlacha Fileata~poetic observations~poems inspired by my trip to my ancestoral home   Sláinte!