As part of Poetry Day Ireland 2025, twelve poems have been selected following a national call out to respond to this year's theme, May Day - read Hawthorn by Stephen de Búrca below.
Hawthorn
I can see the hawthorn tree
wind-angled inland in the field
of lazy beds that bulge like ribs.
Maybe the tree had yet to root
itself while she – nameless, undocumented,
sustained by dried dulse – felt her spade
jolt from buried chunks of Conamara
granite, her family ar an bád bán
or an long chónra. With callus-lashed
palms, she'd have to dig them out.
The field ripples and I pick a wild orchid
from the tree’s base knowing full-well
it’s bad luck. April tacks for Bealtaine,
the only day a hawthorn can
be cut down, before the white petals
are tinged pink. Fuchsia and montbretia
lend a sweetness to the coastal breeze,
the morning dew lingering on the orchid –
God knows what I’ll do with it.
First published in Threshold, 2022
Poetry Day Ireland 2025 will take place on Thursday, 1st May - find out more here.
