Vox Populi
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Kathleen O’Toole: A dimmer hope
… hope for a great sea-change/on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore/is reachable from here.
Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy
First crack of crimson
in the January morning sky
engenders such an ache, not
only for the sun’s escape
from cloud block, but ours
from winter’s grip. And, also
from the barrage of war, and hate
and vengeance we lately thought
we might contain. With each
dawn we feel it: all we’ve yearned
for, striven in a life to create,
cultivate and sow, whose harvest
seems a dimmer hope. Seeking
inner ballast—lines from Tennyson,
Heaney, the psalmist flood in
as a fling of blackbirds crosses
the briefly golden dawn. Not quite
consolation, but assurance that
even as this generation’s time
is winding down, a seed− call it
resistance, belief in miracles begins
to germinate somewhere deep
beneath the crust of this new year.
~~~~
Kathleen O’Toole is a poet and faith-based social activist, as well as former Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, MD. Her collections of poetry include This Far (Paraclete Press, 2019).
Copyright 2025 Kathleen O’Toole
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Thank you for the beauty of these musical lines as well as their hope-filled sentiment.
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Thanks, Meg. I’ve loved Kathleen’s poems for a number of years. As you say, her language is musical and her sentiment lifts my spiirt.
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That tiny seed, in the form of a poem, when I wake in fear. Thank you.
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Tiny seed. Yes.
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I love this poem with its reverie, a prayer to escape the barrage of war and strife. Like my favorite poet, Seamus Heaney, Kathleen O’Toole helps us keep the Spirit level, until peace germinates from the seeds of miraculous resistance. Let’s all be part of the fling of blackbirds who partake in the emerging grain, and help restore balance on this earth.
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When I commented on the poem as a reverie, I meant a hopeful vision, not a fool’s escape. It’s a weasel word. Sorry.
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I like the word ‘reverie.’ It’s a good description for the mood of some poems.
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Lovely comment on the theme of this poem. Thank you.
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Thanks for your invocation that we become the fling of blackbirds! A welcome read into these lines.
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Thank you for this beautiful poem, which to me (waking on Sunday morning to darkness and dread of more bad news) actually shines bright.
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What a lovely comment, Maddie. Thank you. I love Kathleen’s poem as well.
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