by Brendan Rooney (European Legal Studies - Manuel Marín Promotion)
Sonnet No. 20
**a reminder to ourselves
An exhilarating trove of treasure,
Superfluous moments without measure.
Drawing to an inner rising content,
Dismissing the meaningless broken slivers.
Thus, spared the weighing leering contempt,
Of alluring golds and promised silvers.
An every-coloured dragon arching high,
Drifting forward, regal wings out-spread soaring.
Tremendous enveloping crystal skies,
An eruption of transcendent roaring.
Through the eyes what others for too long deemed,
From mind and heart is truth, and beauty gleamed.
Note from the editor: Brendan, who clearly has a talent for writing poetry, previously shared two of his pieces with the College community. As those two pieces befit our theme for the first edition – “New Beginnings” – he has kindly agreed to have them published in “La Voix”, in order to inaugurate the Creative Writing section of this newspaper. You can find these pieces of poetry below.
Dead fields grew again
**a Flanders Field inspired piece
In debate,
Created.
So safe and spacious,
Where one need not should.
Alcove in the woods,
Hidden oasis.
But blind watching prevented,
Ever leaving; contented.
Deaf listening detected,
Nothing coming; protected.
Bodies of the dead once littered here,
Grim interlopers now intrude there.
Honouring those that then served purpose,
Proclaiming their fate, gone and worthless.
The circles of past and present intertwine,
Squared within complex lines as they begin to,
Reoccur but never quite again align.
A story already shaped must continue.
Flags still march the distance, colours flapping through the air,
Sombre fluttering matched only by golden fanfare.
With every fallen prayer, always more followed, beware,
For on scarlet drenched earth stand white stone mounds at attention.
Committed to the fallacy, waging war to end war,
Spied across front lines emerge heroes leaping from their stations.
As he who dares, wins; rising above even that of nations,
Brief daring charge cut short, a field of unfinished narrations.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, wading through the crimson fields of death,
Alone I stray in flowered meadows, the light of life fixed upon my breath.
College feels
Coming from the many corners gathered,
With kinship owed to far-off distant tribes.
Arising out of the old world standard,
But to fragment it all by jests, by jibes.
The result, l’esprit of old European notions.
Voyage and study, the aim to develop,
Soon, fully culturally enveloped.
Loves and laughter shaking firm frontiers,
In sudden tumult, a strange tale appears.
The result, l’esprit of debates and commotions.
The goal, improving the already skilled,
Opportunities to test just how strong-willed.
On the back of camaraderies built,
Both duties and desires fulfilled.
The result, l’esprit of well-thought-out devotions.
The passage of time from dusk until dawn,
Everything offered and everything learned.
Yet, quietly, there are still more things yearned,
Arriving now to a new picture drawn,
The result, l’esprit, whatever way we enjoy it to be.
The result, l’esprit of old European notions,
The result, l’esprit of debates and commotions,
The result, l’esprit of well-thought-out devotions,
The result, l’esprit, whatever way we enjoy it to be.
#newbeginnings #issue1 #CoE #Memories #poetry #sonnet #ManuelMarin #promotion201819 #lavoixducollege #Marinpromotion
