I speak-
Of climbing trees, and, of being terrified, but jumping, ‘fifteen feet!’ onto the brown mound beneath, momentarily and relationally also jumping through a nostalgic hustings of inner time, where order is the din of termites in the framework of the clock.
I speak of seeing then that everything is luminescence until you tumble to the ground, full of the false pride of the crowing cock, a pride felt not for yourself, but for others, just so that they too can know and be aware:
You were never scared at all.
It is of a slow beauty that I speak.
Of rain, pressing down like hard hands on deep knots, pushing down the roots of everything that grows in the old priest’s garden, with he, he being that him who never spoke, and about whom never a plain word was spoken; whose perpetual motive was seemingly the discovery of the location of the centrifugal heart of a garden of flowers; the aortic valve of their grosser dimensions, which once found, could be held, and then time sharply stopped.
I speak of hiding between walls, pressed against forgotten things, your stomach almost crushed by an iron bar you’ve forced up above you, with it being you who chose to be here, waiting even for whispers to die, and it being you who remembers that the last thing you saw before you knew that your father was gone was a map of bitterness, and your childish tea stains gushed out on the floor.
It is of a slow beauty that I speak,
And all our needs and pleasures are composed of one singular act of will.
Oisín Breen is a 35 year-old poet, part time academic in narratological complexity, and a financial journalist covering the US registered investment advisory sector. Dublin born, Breen spent the last decade living in Edinburgh, and has lived, among other places, Damascus, and Prague. His debut collection, ‘Flowers, all sorts in blossom, figs, berries, and fruits, forgotten’ was released Mar. 29 by Hybrid press in Edinburgh (https://hybriddreich.com/oisin-breen/).
Primarily a proponent of long-form style-orientated poetry infused with the philosophical, Breen had a number of poems published in his early twenties mostly in online magazines, before taking time out to hone his craft, since then he has been published both in written and audio formats in a number of journals, including the Blue Nib, Books Ireland, the New English Review, and Dreich magazine.
