Kevin McManus is an award winning poet-writer from Carrigallen, Co Leitrim.
He has published six novels so far and is currently working on a new poetry collection.

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Lughnasadh

An assembly for the sun god Lugh,
son of earth and sky.
The fruits of the conjugal
have ripened and matured.

Climbing to the higher ground
closer to the heavens,
to a mountain reek.
A celebration of the battle won for the harvest
against Balor’s blight.
An offering of the first fruits,
a sheaf of corn, buried in the earth at the summit,
the sacrifice of the bull and the green man
to provide new life in Spring.

Walking sunwise at the well,
east to the west to the sun.
Tying clooties to the hawthorn branch
for healing and to honour the spirit.

Halfway between the solstice and the equinox,
a festival of life and bounty,
the final of the four.
Summer is growing old,
the sun is sinking slowly in the sky
days are shortening,
the light is weakening,
moving closer to the darkness.