Poetry Day Ireland is an annual island-wide celebration of poetry which invites the nation to read, write, and share a poem on the day.
Presented by Poetry Ireland, the theme for this year is "Good Sports" celebrating the good sport in all of us, the drive to give it a go or to have a crack at it.
Read Enda Wyley's poem Henry Shefflin below.
Henry Shefflin
Portrait by Gerry Davis,
The National Gallery of Ireland
And who would not want to be
Henry Shefflin, turned from home,
standing straight-backed, head-high
.
his feet firmly apart on the Ballyhale pitch,
a hurley swung over his shoulder, the other
hand casual in his trouser pocket?
.
No muddied shorts and jersey now–
he is king of these grounds, a suited monarch
of all about him, facing the steely-eyed future
.
his past a sliotar struck far across the field.
Centre of all things, he likes to gaze up
the elegant stairs to Canova's 'Amorino,’
.
and is older than this marble prince, though
no less determined, both with hands raised–
one to a bow, the other to the hurley’s handle.
Photo © National Gallery of Ireland
Find out more about Poetry Day Ireland here.
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