Published May 15th, 2025
Dublin Poetry Contest #1 – First Place
by Kevin MacAlan
There's a mist that hangs 'round the Liffey,
Beneath O'Connell when evenings chill,
Which bears the scent of wet dead wood,
The wraith of forests felled and tilled.
Two hundred thousand Leinster acres.
Four hundred thousand Irish days.
Six hundred thousand Celtic souls,
But what does Dublin weigh?
Dublin weighs heavy on my mind.
Like silt in a slowed river gathers,
Dusk looms, and the city loses sight
Of the battles that really matter.
Dublin didn't appear from nowhere.
Be the seed Dyflin or Áth Cliath,
What took root was an ardent people
With higher goals than bags of cash.
Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Salesforce,
Brush principles aside like dust.
The rising, the war, and the treaty,
Lost to history, like iron to rust.
Theme park Dublin touts Leopold.
While civil liberties, once proclaimed,
Are footnotes on some guided tour,
Tourists themselves are stabbed and maimed.
Subject to lowlifes, not high ideals,
The diverse and needy picked on,
The tricolour ill-used for hate,
Ireland's full – of contradiction.
World populations are moving,
Right now, caused by human ills,
But soon, with the hothouses burning,
More will need to cool their heels.
When the displaced arrive in fear,
Don't ask what they can provide,
But what can Ireland give to them.
Meet this measure, and be civilised.
The pool of the Poddle agus Liffey,
As black as the slow-settled ale,
Has grown for a dozen centuries,
And must again if it will prevail.
Note: agus means "and" in Gaelic.
About the Poet
Kevin MacAlan resides in Ballinamult, County Waterford, Ireland.
Read the poet's biography on Kevin MacAlan's Artist Page.
This poem is also featured in Wax Poetry and Art Magazine #7,
published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Dublin Poetry Magazine:
Haunted Relic
by Ita Reddington
Dublin Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
- Visit the main Wax Poetry and Art Submissions Page to see all opportunities.
- Visit the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
- This website and all contents ©Kirk Ramdath and specified artists.
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