Naming All The Stars
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About this ebook
Michael Roycroft’s debut collection of poetry has the intriguing title of Naming All the Stars. But ‘What are the stars?’ to quote a famous line from playwright Sean O’Casey, indeed the title, like the fan-shaped tail of the comet Arend-Roland, the poem which references the title, casts its sparkle on the ordinary which can become the extraordinary. Roycroft writes with insight and compassion about these things including the lives of people, and places, that convey a sense of transcendence and sprinkles the stardust to bring them into the light and makes them accessible and available to the reader. The poems are laced with humour and sadness, with a lot of ‘stars’ getting a mention.
Mike Roycroft
Mike Roycroft was born in Wolfe Tone St. (over Manifold’s shop). After a number of years working in the Regional Hospital, he went abroad teaching, in West and North Africa (but latterly working as an entertainer in Marrakech hotels). He has travelled fairly widely, from Svalbard to Kyrgyzstan, occasionally climbing unchallenging mountains. He now lives in Nenagh, where he is a member of Nenagh Writers’ Group. He’s been writing prose and poetry for many years and he was one of the featured poets in Sextet 2 (2016). This is his first collection of poems.
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Book preview
Naming All The Stars - Mike Roycroft
Out in the backyard,
the roofs with slates precariously poised
and waiting for next November’s gales,
it rushed –
a still, silver smudge across the Milky Way.
For weeks he watched it,
pronouncing its strange name: Arend-Roland,
and marvelling at how
he seemed to hear its distant roar
as he gazed upward.
Finally, he’d feel the cold and turn indoors,
back to classroom worries, the fire and the radio,
confident he’d one day name all the stars.
The Dream Topping Spider
When you open the cupboard, there’s quite a good chance –
if the kitchen’s not dark – that you’ll get a sly glance
from a creature who may feel he’s the lord of the manse
but I call him the Dream Topping Spider.
When the light from the kitchen floods into his den
he knows it’s the Giant come for something again
but as concepts like ‘cocoa’ are outside his ken
he just lurks near a box of Dream Topping.
It can’t be much fun for him there on his own
as he fine-tunes the webs in the press he calls home;
does he wonder what Life is, does he mind being alone
in mock safety behind the Dream Topping?
Now Dream Topping Spider you may think it odd
but giants like us have our own giant called ‘God’ –
or we hope that we have, for if we’re here on our tod
we’re like you, but without the Dream Topping!
The Long Table
It seemed centuries old,
from a shadowy land
and devoid of artistic design.
Whether meant for a convent,
a castle or inn
no one could truly divine.
Shed tears have dried
on the rough wooden grain –
fed by passion that’s long since grown cold,
and laughter still lives,
the sounds sunk in the grooves
as lasting and precious as gold.
Songs there