The Keepers
That civilisation may not sink
Down the slope, beneath the walls,
Through ragged orchards, plots undug,
Then capture water, capture water.
As it stumbles from the rock devise
Some trays of stone, pipes of copper or of clay,
Carry it level by engine or by hand
To cisterns dank but safe beneath the town.
Be jealous of any sip a lizard seeks,
Any larceny by snake or bird,
Any draught denied our rightful corn.
What can we be but keepers of our own?
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 116:
A WB Yeats Special Issue
This essential Yeats anniversary publication is edited by Vona Groarke and includes responses to Yeats’s legacy and readings of his poems from public figures as diverse as Bill Whelan, Neil Jordan, Colm Tóibín, Frank McGuinness, Mary Costello and John Banville, along with new poems responding to Yeats’s work by Irish and international poets such as Margaret Atwood, Sharon Olds, Philip Schultz, Sinéad Morrissey and Harry Clifton. The issue also includes Yeats’s poetry collections, reviewed by leading poets as if just published. Now also available in hardback.
"superb special edition" John Boland, Irish Independent
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