Live Encounters Poetry & Writing May 2026
Elegy, poems by Nora Brennan.
Elegy
I used to love how snowdrops waited for the year to turn
before breaking ground,
fingers pushed through a blanket of clay, their need
to stretch and step onto the stage, perform
the opening movement; robed in white, joined by
crocuses, hyacinths and the golden bells of daffodils,
a sublime symphony to announce spring.
All that constancy I took for granted,
happenings that remained steadfast through the years.
Now, not long after Samhain,
before the ghosts of their ancestors have come to rest,
before the waning light stands still,
they rise like bewildered children in the night,
cast out on empty stomachs, confused by the warmth,
caught in the crossfire of our greed, they risk annihilation,
frost burn, a late November cut.
Children of the earth, our times have robbed your cradle.*
We who should know better, close our eyes to your distress.
*Eavan Boland Child of our Time
Warming the Space
Rain, and more rain.
Snails creeping up the walls again.
When a warm air mass meets the cold
the meteorologist tells us, rain falls.
Kindness has that effect too.
The unexpected sweetness of tears
when a cold heart is touched by love
a graced seeing when fog clears,
not the one who turned her back to you
but a child, frightened and alone.
At the grave, your watering eyes warm the space
where forgiveness shakes the hand of pain.
Harvest
© Nora Brennan
Nora Brennan’s second collection of poems, Still Time, was published by Revival Press in November 2024. A prize winner in national competitions including the Jonathan Swift and Francis Ledwidge poetry awards, her poems have appeared in Crannóg, The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, Skylight 47, The Stony Thursday Book and elsewhere. She lives in Kilkenny.