Dirigibles (by Derek Mahon)

Griffin Prize for Excellence In Poetry, The (2001 - 0)

1We who used to drift

2 superbly in mid-air,

3each a giant airship

4 before ‘the last war’,

5shrink to a soft buzz

6 about financial centres

7surprising visitors,

8 hackers and bean counters

9in cloud-flown highrises.

10 Cloud-slow, we snoop for hours

11on open-plan offices

12 and cloudy cocktail bars.

13Amnesia and mystique

14 have cast into oblivion

15fiery failures like

16 Italia, R101,

17the whole brief catalogue

18 of mad catastrophes;

19and showy Hindenburg

20 of course, the last of these.

21A temporary setback.

22 Our time will come again

23with helium in the sack

24 instead of hydrogen

25while slow idealists

26 gaze at refrozen ice,

27reflourishing rain forests,

28 the oceans back in place;

29at sand and stars, blue skies,

30 clear water, scattered light

31as in the early days

32 of nearly silent flight.

Publication Notes

Derek Mahon, Life on Earth (Oldcastle, Ireland: Gallery Press, 2008). This poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2009 International Shortlist).

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011