 "WEST COAST" copyright 2006 by TOM ROMERO
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A Harrowing Grace"A Harrowing Grace" I mark my field,
my wild Irish acre
infused with weeds
stones that refuse
Clumps of green
my half-webbed toes.
weed out jutting stones,
lift rocks with soft hands
circles for my many births,
I make a path winds
a harrowing grace; work my stones into wisdom. Maybe tonight the stars will
my sweat-blurred vision. Copyright 2006 by Mary O'Malley
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Mary writes:
I wrote "A Harrowing Grace" in an attempt to explore life in mid-age. I wanted to integrate this with my Irish background. In Western Ireland, where most of my family is from, there are few trees and many rocks and stones. It is a harshly beautiful landscape. Stones seem to appear in my writing with increasing regularity. This poem is based on the traditional Irish primogeniture of bequeathing smaller and smaller parcels of land to the family heirs. It alludes to the strange mixing of Pagan and Christian undersong found in everyday Irish life. I took the title from a line in an Emily Dickinson poem, which in its complete form is "a courteous yet harrowing grace." I thought it a lovely and exquisite phrase.
Mary C. O'Malley has an MFA from Spalding University and lives in Avon Lake, Ohio. She is a mother of five (two sets of twins) and has spent twenty years in social work. Mary has been published both on and offline. Some of the Internet sites she can be found in are as follows: The Boxcar Review, PoetryCemetary.com, and Poetry Midwest. Her work is in the new anthology Cleveland in Prose and Poetry, and her work will be appearing in the Spring 2006 issue of Cleveland State University's Whiskey Island. Mary can be reached via email at danandrachel2003@yahoo.com.
