Lizz Murphy - Poem 246: Seeing life

Lizz Murphy - Poem 236: Lilt xxxii. The Shankill Butchers

LILT xxxii.

THE SHANKILL BUTCHERS

c. 1968

I buy a mini kilt

and a gold maple leaf pin 

with green and white borders

My grandmother says

people will think I’m a Catholic

I say sure it’s all one god

c. 1975

We’re in Australia 

Ten Pound Immigrants

My mother writes 

glad you went they’re cutting 

the throats of mixed couples

I say there’s no god worth that 

—

The Shankill Butchers was a notorious loyalist gang in Belfast’s Shankill area, which kidnapped, tortured and murdered random Catholic civilians 1975-1982. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankill_Butchers online [accessed August 27, 2016]. At the time there were also reports of mixed (Catholic and Protestant) marriage killings. 

Lizz Murphy - Poem 220: Lilt xxxi. The rise of the non-religious

THE RISE OF THE NON-RELIGIOUS

Of course, we are not arguing that the movement
of the Holy Spirit can be mathematically modelled

The church of my own childhood is a showroom and a restaurant  another reduced to brick and rubble as we watch the atrium still eerily standing like some portal to a broken hereafter There is a steep decline in the faithful or another way to put it: 150 years of the rise of the non-religious There are statistics and graphs percentages and fractions predictions and mathematical models of the committed the affiliated the non-religious The non-religious are mixed: no religion, atheists, Jedi Knights, heavy metals, free thinkers and those ‘other’ Protestants are a minority and there is no hope for reconversion


--
Reference:
'Collapsing Churches in Northern Ireland?' Saints and Sceptics 
Accessed online: August 11, 2016 URL: www.saintsandsceptics.org 
  

Lizz Murphy - Poem 219: Lilt xxx. Church

LILT xxx.

CHURCH

I am standing on my old main road looking across at the church I attended as a child most Sunday mornings It is larger and more elaborate than I remember it I don’t know what to make of this I wonder if it is still cobalt blue inside Heavenly I remember the gentle reverend and how he surreptitiously gave me a correct answer in my Sunday School test the dilemma he unwittingly created Will I be rude if I don’t change my answer will I be a cheat if I do How relieved I was that I didn’t my 99 per cent achievement all my own I google Ulsterville Presbyterian Church on my return see they still have their missionary drive I google again tonight There is a lot of press from 2013 it’s turrets towering into the evening sky spotlights accentuating the stonework The new Sapphire restaurant is in the rear a high-end furniture showroom in the front

Lizz Murphy - Poem 218: Lilt xxix. Dancing the Schuhplattler

LILT xxix. 

DANCING THE SCHUHPLATTLER

I demonstrate German dancing slapping thighs

slapping knees slapping feet and for a finale

slapping faces Her glasses fly from her face

her tears fly from her eyes  she flies inside to

her mammy me calling but that's how they did

it on the TV! It was a long time ago I still feel bad

Lizz Murphy - Poem 213: Lilt xxviii. Rise

RISE

Public artwork on the Broadway roundabout off the Falls Road in West Belfast. Artist: Wolfgang Buttress, 2011, white and silver steel, 37.5 m high x 30 m wide.

The newspaper calls it a Meccano artwork

The structural engineer hopes it will inspire children to be engineers

The city council hopes it will inspire unity and a new dawn

The artist references the sun and the reeds before us

The locals call it The Balls of the Falls

On a better day it’s the Westicle

They like it

Great images of Rise here.

 

Lizz Murphy - Poem 212: Lilt xxvii. Roundabout art

ROUNDABOUT ART

In the Catholic areas the roundabouts feature religious icons 

mostly the Virgin Mary with her hands outstretched her face 

serene in the weak sunlight

No icons or idols for the Protestants only a patch of grass 

a circle of kerbing a red and blue worn down paint patina

All those roundabouts praying for art 

Lizz Murphy - Poem 211: Lilt xxvi. The Red Hand of Ulster

LILT xxvi.

 

The former flag of the Northern Irish government 1953-72

The flag of the Province of Ulster

Lizz Murphy - Poem 210: Lilt xxv. I unfold the map

120 Donnybrook Street Lisburn Road Belfast

Lizz Murphy - Poem 209: Lilt xxiv. Hard life

Photographed at the Ulster Folk Museum

LILT xxiv.

 

HARD LIFE

A woman with a hard life on

her face and a note in her hand

I have two children in Poland

mistakes me for the rich as I 

dream on the precision of Watermarks

at the window of The Pen Shop

How can I tell her

I'm just a writer