The Oratory of Light - sample

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The

Oratory of Light Poems in the spirit of St Columba

James Harpur

www.ionabooks.com

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Copyright © 2021 James Harpur First published 2021 by Wild Goose Publications Suite 9, Fairfield 1048 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 4XS, Scotland the publishing division of the Iona Community.

Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243.

ISBN 978-1-84952-790-3 Cover image and internal images © Paul Ó Colmáin The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book.

All rights reserved. Apart from the circumstances described below relating to non-commercial use, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher via PLSclear.com.

Non-commercial use: The material in this book may be used non-commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher.

If photocopies of sections are made, please make full acknowledgement of the source, and report usage to CLA or other copyright organisation.

James Harpur has asserted his right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Overseas distribution Australia: Willow Connection Pty Ltd, Unit 4A, 3–9 Kenneth Road, Manly Vale, NSW 2093 New Zealand: Pleroma, Higginson Street, Otane 4170, Central Hawkes Bay Printed by Bell & Bain, Thornliebank, Glasgow ®

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Contents Preface 7 Iona Sound

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Part One: Exile Eithne’s Carol 12 On Leaving Ireland 14 Retrospect 15 Exile 16 Nostos 17 Islands 18 Bountiful 19 To Live in Derry 20 The Oaks of Derry 21 Nine Waves 22 The Worst Fear 23 Part Two: The Mayhem of Miracles Wings 26 The Skull 27 Vision 28 Columba the Scribe 29 The Oratory of Light 30 The Missing Vowel 31 Spilled Ink 32 The Visitor 33 Ballad of the Milk Vessel 34 The Creature in the River Ness Psalm 44 36

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The Healing Stone 37 Ballad of the Spring 38 The Falling Monk 39 Columba on the Island of Hinba 40 Bread of Light 41 Defending the Poets 42 The Pattern of the Day 43 The Whale 44 Song of the Contrary Winds 45 Abbot Cainnech’s Shoe 46 Baitan’s Grave 47 O Apple Tree 48 The Door 49 Ballad of the Book of Glass 50 Part Three: Waiting for the Angels Harvest Spirit 54 Valediction of the Reptiles 55 On the Shore 56 Dies Irae 57 The Receiving Angels 58 The Gift 59 The White Horse 60 Transcription 61 Last Words 62 Returning Home 63 Ernene in Donegal 64 Sources for the poems 6

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Preface Be kind to one another. That’s all there is to life.

Be at peace.

St Columba

I began writing this book during the Covid pandemic, when the enforced physical restrictions at home took me off to the imaginative freedom of the island of Iona. I still remember my first visit there and how the boat across the narrow sound from Mull delivered me to what seemed like the Otherworld – what George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community, described as ‘a “thin place” – only a tissue paper separating the material from the spiritual’.

Each poem in this book has grown from the seeds of reported words or deeds of St Columba (or Columcille, ‘dove of the church’), especially those found in the works of Adomnán (d. 704), Columba’s first biographer, and Manus O’Donnell (d. 1564). In most cases poetic thoughts and images would emerge from this material and I would try to follow them (sometimes in the persona of a Columban monk) to see where they would lead me, hoping to arrive at a place that would have been congenial to Columba himself. I have also included some versions of anonymous medieval Irish poems ascribed to the authorship of the saint. I have added ‘After the Irish’ to distinguish these from the others, and have noted all the literary sources at the back of the book.

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Historians remind us that Columba was as much a tough, worldly power-broker as a ‘saintly’ spiritual leader and tend to disassociate him from accounts of his miracles. But it isn’t necessary to believe or disbelieve in the miracles associated with Columba to see that they betoken a world view in which the mysteries of the universe – which might include clairvoyance, visions and dreams, spiritual healing and synchronistic encounters – are to be valued, marvelled at, explored and celebrated; a world view that posited a God-centred universe in which everything – people, animals, angels and the elements – had its place and was subject to divine laws and susceptible to the power of prayer. This type of world view has also been the hallmark of the oldest streams of poetry, which is itself dedicated to exploring the inexhaustible realm of the Imagination. As William Blake said, ‘the history of all times and places is nothing else but improbabilities and impossibilities’.

James Harpur, West Cork, 2021

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Iona Sound You look for signs for why you’re here And try to settle on the sun’s confetti Aglitter on the aisle of the water Unrippling in white towards the shore – As if God’s unveiling a truth, a path That, like a bridegroom, only you can sense.

Waves break randomly on the vessel; Or do they press you to your destiny?

Glimpses of the distant ocean shimmer In the way that endlessness shimmers; And as the wind divests your self of self You wonder what on earth a boundary is!

Above the abbey tower doves fly up – White petals from a rose, or notes of a song Configuring a pattern that attunes your soul To what it now remembers it has lost.

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Exile

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Eithne’s Carol (Before the birth of Columba, 7 December, 521) One night, my son inside me still, The fields of Gartan deep in frost, When star on star was gathering To light a candle for the Christ I saw a shape within the fire – A golden angel who revealed A mantle woven with the colours Of all the flowers of the fields.

And how I cried when suddenly The angel cast it into space – I watched the cloak unfold and cover A swathe of mountains, plains and seas And heard a whispering: ‘Your son Shall mirror the flowers of this world.

He’ll be a prophet to his people, Exuding the fragrance of the Lord.’

That night, my son inside me still, The fields of Gartan deep in frost When star on star was gathering To light a candle for the Christ

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I thought how Life expands from flesh And how the spirit would unfurl My son and clothe the world with light – My son so tightly, darkly curled.

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On Leaving Ireland The seagulls heckling Lough Foyle Are full of farewell cries – But cannot join my coracle And its wake of sad goodbyes.

(After the Irish)

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Retrospect This ash-grey Eye That sends its gaze To Ireland Will never linger Upon her men Or women Again.

(After the Irish)

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Exile A place where Ireland is invisible – The verdict was the lodestar of my will Drawing along the foaming coracle For I knew I’d be distracted from the Lord If my heart’s eye from every cliff or hill Migrated back to Derry, Donegal.

Then landfall on that sunny grainy day – Iona, fireflies of drizzle, tabula rasa!

But Satan must have been a stowaway.

I drowned myself in books and catching fish, In songs and fasts but still the dreams increased, My soul reviving what my mind had crushed: Unable to see home the more I saw The hounding fields of Derry, Donegal.

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Nostos Lord, in dream I cross The vast grey ocean Rolling through waves and troughs To sweetest Ireland.

And as my boat arrives The seagulls scream Their welcome in the skies, Rejoicing that I’m home.

Gliding on Lough Foyle With swans to serenade me At last I find my soul On Mount Binevenagh.

By the abbey of Durrow The elms are whispering …

And in the startle of a flurry A blackbird sings.

At dawn in Ross Grencha I hear the stags; and cuckoos At the tremble of summer Blow echoes through the woods.

(After the Irish)

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Wild Goose Publications, the publishing house of the Iona Community established in the Celtic Christian tradition of Saint Columba, produces books, e-books, CDs and digital downloads on: l l l l l l

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holistic spirituality social justice political and peace issues healing innovative approaches to worship song in worship, including the work of the Wild Goose Resource Group material for meditation and reflection For more information: Wild Goose Publications The Iona Community Suite 9, Fairfield, 1048 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 4XS, Scotland e-mail: admin@ionabooks.com or visit our website at

www.ionabooks.com for details of all our products and online sales