Night-Watch Man and the Muse

To Gerry Mckinley

By Mark A. Murphy

If poetry is not social then it ceases to have a function beyond perfume.

–André Gide

A life time ago in a rage

of mourning, my mind bent on self-doubt

and self-loathing, drudging up

the many injustices of a social system

hell bent on the destruction of life,

         I read a poem

about a child in Soweto

who had been beaten with such malice

his heart gave up, his bare feet still dirty from playing

on a mound of clay after school.

 

These words were not written

for an astounded world to wrestle with,

nor yet for the rich to sniff at

by that wise poet, Mazisi Kunene,

         but by my old friend, Gerry Mckinley,

an obstinate Irish rebel, a man not unlike Kunene,

a man accustomed to madness,

who dared to tell the truth, imposing on our solitude

forbidden words and abounding optimism—

though a million hearts might break.


Mark A. Murphy’s first full-length collection, Night-watch Man & Muse was published in 2013 by Salmon Poetry (Eire). His poems have appeared in over 160 magazines worldwide. Lit Fest Press in America will publish his latest manuscript, The Ontological Constant, in early 2018.

Reading recommendationNight-watch Man & Muse by Mark A. Murphy.

“To Gerry Mckinley” was previously published by Dead Drunk Dublin.