Deep in the forest
the sound of falling beech nuts
shelling the silence.
Pines shed their needles,
seamstresses of the forest
dropping their stitches.
Night in the forest
crossings and double-crossings.
Journeys of life and death.
A pair of buzzards
whistling in the sky above.
I take root below.
hard
against a window pane
my
world has frozen.
Words
They followed me
into the forest today
asking useless questions.
Trampling the foxgloves
and buttercups. Chattering
through the pine needles.
Drowning out the birdsong
and raising themselves
above the waterfall.
Making themselves so important
even the rain couldn’t shut them up.
Inside the Earth
there is a core of hurt
swelling
like the cold sea above.
Sometimes
red-hot tears burst through
making
mountains that live forever.
Song
If
you let yourself,
the
song you will hear is your own.
Like
the sailor who hears the mermaid sing,
you
will never go home again.
I
have heard you singing.
Teresa Godfrey’s poetry and short stories have been published in The Galway Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Boyne Berries, Rhythm of Hearts, Ireland’s Own, Crannog, Corncrake, North West Words, the Blue Nib, the Community Arts Partnership anthologies Resonance 2018, Find 2019, and Vision 2020, the 2018 Highland Poetry anthology (USA), and Curlew (UK). Her poetry was selected for inclusion in Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse. Her first poetry collection titled This, Also, Is Mercy was published by Summer Palace Press in 2021 and her debut novel, Wipe Out, was published by Sunbury Press USA in 2022.
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