Spirit Eyes

In 'Mount Cargill', a poem in Maurice Whelan's book Excalibur's Return, he described running up Mount Cargill in New Zealand with Richard O'Neill-Dean, to whom that volume was dedicated. Richard responded to Maurice's latest collection, Spirit Eyes, with a poem of his own, after discussing how Maurice sets about crafting a poem and the importance he attaches to a central thought or idea upon which the poem is constructed.


Shipwright


for Maurice Whelan, poet


He might look out the odd plank,


let it season slowly,


covered from the rain,


so that frames, ribs, stringers,


in the imagination, slowly form,


the particular twist or warp or grain


of a thought


favouring the idea of a hull,


sensitive to wind and wave,


to keep out storms,


to manage strains.


But, beyond all, the keelson,


massive, strong,


it must permit of no bend,


take long keel-bolts,


going down through heartwood,


to fasten the lead weight


of a real thought,


many tons,


to keep a good poem upright,


and carrying on,


tied in tight, to bind


all between the sweet lines


of its stem and stern,


to make a fine entry,


to set its wake


upon the oceans


of the mind