Aengus 2

This one came from the Oracle.


I took a breath upon the wind today

as full of life as rock and rose

and sweet as spring water flowing.


A berry fell dark cycle closing

the long and lonely season ending

the fat trout rises.


And yet the light is cold and blue

above the wandering trees

and the breeze listens to songs I cannot hear.


Sometimes I think I could follow

a river wild and free

to the world’s end the wind’s end


but in between lies winter and the frozen strand.

Time flows on and never back like gentle waves

and never softens to summer.


Life flows on and never softens

to the gentle waves of sunlight

that ripple dippled with winged jewels.


Only by moonlight do the apples gleam

and I reach up to pluck them

above the endless silver stream.

Published by

Jane Dougherty


11 thoughts on “Aengus 2”

  1. Beautiful! And Beth is right–magical and lyrical.
    Well, the legend lends itself to that, and many poems, like silver streams. 😀
    She knew you needed to get the apples in this time, since they weren’t in the last one.

    1. Thank you. I’m getting to the end of a story that started off as a short story based on the Norse myth of Idunn and the apples of eternal youth. I realised as I was working it into a longer story, that so many of the themes and symbols overlap with Irish mythology. I’m trying to make a complicated idea into a simple storyline. There are lots of apples in it 🙂

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