In his latest collection, the title of which is a partial echo of Yeats’ ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ and Richard Murphy’s ‘Sailing to an Island’, Mervyn Linford, who is himself 45% Irish, according to a DNA test, takes his readers on a literary excursion through counties Mayo, Clare, Galway, Leitrim and Connemara, expressing the deep affection that he feels for the country, its people, culture, landscapes and coastline. The Atlantic is never far from these poems; loughs are close, too. Linford is drawn to water, whether he is writing about lakes, rivers or the ocean. In his preface he states that Ireland is a country that he loves, with a culture that he loves, especially the poetry, and a place that he wishes he had moved to when he was much younger.

Spellbound by the seashore, cormorants, oystercatchers, moorhens and gannets fly in and out of these poems. Inland, Linford explores the geology and geography of the landscape, taking in limestone pavements, blanket bogs, standing stones and U-shaped glacial valleys. He soaks up the mystical atmosphere that is conveyed through the fairies, banshees and giants of Irish mythology. In ‘Killary Harbour – Connemara’

 

     Mystery abounds. Tap a stone and abracadabra

     there’s a stonechat …

 

The sound of surf cresting at Downpatrick Head is complemented by the scents of wildflowers abundant in the meadows: loosestrife, meadowsweet and buttercups. In his poems, Linford calls to attention all of the senses, making the reader feel that he is actually there in the present moment. In ‘Nature’s Perfumery’ our senses come alive right at the start:

 

     I’m swamped with meadowsweet and honeysuckle –

     Connemara’s own perfumery.

 

     Bogs have a certain beauty,

     a fragrance of their own.

 

His poems are full of "sun and sea and the weather’s psalms".

Running like a thread throughout the collection is the sense that time is passing, slipping through his hands. In ‘Thoor Ballylee’

 

     Ghosts reach out like ripples that appear

     on the Streamstown River

 

     when children throw their stones without a fear

     and the cold concentric circles

     make it clear

 

     that

     time’s 

     escaping.

 

     The watchsprings in the water, these circling movements

     radiate their memories and moods

     of when youth was

     careless.

 

This is one of several poems in which Linford pays homage to Yeats. Others include ‘Coole Park’ and ‘Drumcliffe Elegy’. Other Irish writers such as Seamus Heaney and Patrick Kavanagh are also referenced in the book.

Linford’s evocations of nature are often bound up with the spiritual realm, whether that be a pagan one or a Christian one. In ‘Knock Shrine – Co. Mayo’ he writes: "I have prayed to many gods: those who enlighten stones and even starlings - / both heretic and apostate I await either purgatory / or perdition." In ‘Lough Derg’ he reflects on "whether Imbolc or the Passion is the truth". In Linford, there is always the tension between these two strands of thought. It is an open question that is played out in and among the wonder of Nature’s creation.

The collection is enhanced by 18 colour photographs taken by the author. These include archaeological sites of specific interest such as Céide Fields on the north County Mayo coast in the west of Ireland, a limestone pavement in The Burren in County Clare, the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb – a large dolmen comprising three standing portal stones supporting a heavy horizontal capstone dating from the early Neolithic period, and the gravestone of WB Yeats in Drumcliffe churchyard, County Sligo. Highly recommended.

Mervyn Linford, Sailing to Sligo, Littoral Press, £9