The perfect kiss
IT came as something of a surprise to the writer Ulick O'Connor that a poem he had written nearly two decades ago would suddenly return in such an odd way.
First he got a call from the composer Rhona Clarke, who asked if he would agree to her putting his poem The Kiss to music, so that it could be performed by the National chamber Choir at the Cork Choral Festival last month.
Then he came across a piece on the internet by the writer Chet Raymo, in which he recounted how he discovered the poem on the back of an Aer Lingus seat as he crossed the Atlantic and one line remained with him.
"The phrase lingered long in my mind long after journey's end" he wrote. "Irish friends on both sides of the ocean could not identify the author. An internet search, too was unsuccessful. Finally, I tried the Aer Lingus web site. Within an hour, I had the answer back by return: Ulick O'Connor.
"It was such a weird thing that The Kiss should be revived in this way" said Ulick, who knew nothing of the interest his poem had created.
THE KISS
She said to me
"Kiss me specially",
And with her lips on mine
Traced a design
To show the way
Bees on a drowsy day
Suck honey from fuchsia.
How could I be so sure
That the artificer who spun
The golden honeycomb
For her at Erice,
The goddess in exile
Could ever have gleaned
What I found
When I leaned
To that command.
From 'One is Animate' (1990)
- LIAM COLLINS
