The Seven Streams

Jared Martineau

The Seven Streams are a geographical and mythological anomaly in Ireland 

in a remote part of the Burren mountains of North Clare

near the villages of Carran and Kilnaboy 

situated nearby to the ruins Mohernaglas, as well as 

near the archaeological site Slievenaglasha Wedge Tomb..

Come down drenched, at the end of May,

with the cold rain so far into your bones

that nothing will warm you except your

own walking, and let the sun come out

at day’s end near Slievenaglusha

with the rainbows doubling over Mulloch Mor

and see your clothes steaming in the bright air.

Be a provenance of something gathered,

a summation of previous intuitions,

let your vulnerabilities walking 

on the cracked sliding limestone

be this time, not a weakness, but a faculty

for understanding what’s about to happen.

Stand above the Seven Streams

letting the deep-down current surface 

around you, then branch and branch

as they do, back into the mountain

and as if you were able for that flow,

say the few necessary words

and walk on, broader and cleansed

for having imagined.

David Whyte

in, Essentials