The Inspiring of Molly Headd
A poem by Patrick Deeley

The Inspiring of Molly Headd

While rummaging among dust-furred bits and pieces
jumbled under a bed
and seeming to belong to no-one,
you find a woman
about whom the world – if it ever supposed at all –
supposed only that she quietly got by,

has risen from an old suitcase
or cardboard box:
in the shape of a book of hand-written ballads,
you tell us –
or is it in a crackly recording of fiddle music or song?
But what astounds

is the sensation that grips
and shakes you
when you find the stranger – fervent, fierce, pent-up
for so long – released,
lisping or lilting there
until the open, awoken heart is yours

and yours alone.
With a sigh you go back to the chores of household
and haggard – but now
you can never wholly go.
You are become altered, stirred
to loose, it’ll take a lifetime, the cry of self-discovery.

About the Author:

Patrick Deeley is a poet, memoirist and children’s author from Loughrea, County Galway. He has received many awards for his writing including The 2019 Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award. Seven collections of his poems have been published by Dedalus Press, most recently ‘Groundswell: New and Selected’, and ‘The End of the World’.

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