Page 27 - Re<>Dux Arts Magazine: Autumn 2014
P. 27
The Lough Derg Series
"I wanted to capture the movement, atmosphere and internal passion of the pilgrims
as they pray for their own personal needs or indeed redemption and to create a
sentiment of mystery and emotion." — Paul McCloskey
The first evening they prayed till nine o'clock
Around the gravel rings, a hundred decades
Of rosaries until they hardly knew what words meant --
Their own names when they spoke them sounded mysterious.
They knelt and prayed and rose and prayed
And circled the crosses and kissed the stones
Never looking away from the brimstone bitterness
To the little islands of Pan held in the crooked elbow of the lake,
They closed their eyes to Donegal and the white houses
On the slope of the northern hills
And these pilgrims of a western reason
Were not pursuing French-hot miracles.
There were hundreds of them tripping one another
Upon the pilgrim way (O God of Truth
Keep him who tells this story straight,
Let no cheap insincerity shape his mouth).
(Excerpt from the epic poem "Lough Derg" by Patrick Kavanagh.
Kavanagh was a witness to the ancient pilgrimage at Lough Derg in 1941.)
Preliminary sketch for The Lough Derg Series by Paul McCloskey
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