MiPOesias Magazine

Mairéad Byrne

Mairéad Byrne is one of the 11, no the 17, most important Irish poets (living). She has published poems. Born in Dublin in the middle of the last century, she became an American citizen in January 2006. Her ambition, achievable only by virtue of the broadest redefinition of terms, is to talk only in poetry. Her poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

An Interview With A Wise Old Man

Early in 2006, I had the opportunity to meet—and interview—a wise old man.

MB: You are a wise old man & have lived a long time. Please can you tell me what you have learned?

WOM: Yes.

MB: For example, you have built the house you live in. You use energy powered only from the natural movements of insects in your garden. You have perfected a mineral supplement which, in effect, replaces the necessity for food. You make all your own clothes out of cloth woven by yourself from flax grown in the far field yonder. You have had six wives, each one younger & more beautiful than the one before. All your children have immigrated but send you large packages. Everyone says you are incredibly wise. You have written many books. Today, in what may be the waning years of an incredibly productive life, you seem serene & equanimous. What is the secret of your happiness?

WOM: Happiness.

MB: I see. Very good. You often talk about “chalk,” how things must be “chalky,” and the essential “chalkiness” of experience. Can you expand on that?

WOM: I was a teacher.

MB: I know. I was your student. They say that everyone has one great teacher in him. You were mine.

WOM: One feels one’s students.

MB: That is so beautiful. You have received many honors in your life. You have won the Pulitzer Prize, twice, gotten four Guggenheims, a MacArthur “Genius” Award, and the Nobel—for both Peace & Literature. These achievements are like some aspiring writer’s fantasy. What does it mean to have achieved so much?

WOM: I never got a Pushcart.

MB: Oh, I’m sorry. People say that true happiness is derived from living in the moment, that regardless of what has passed or passing or to come, the thing is to just be in the moment, as fully as possible. To smell the roses & coffee. To be aware of the small hairs rising on the forearm or the back of the neck, the cilia on the caterpillar, the smell of new-baked bread on the window-sill, the taste of a ripe mango, the sound of Bob Marley when his voice breaks or he makes one of those kinda sexual sounds. Is this what it’s all about for you? Is this what has caused you to forge a path to wisdom?

WOM: Mm hmm.

MB: That’s so great! I feel we’re in sync which is weird because I’m not that wise even though I was your student all those years ago and am engaged to you now. But is it ever a strain for you—being a wise old man & having to go out & about wearing wise old man clothes & expressions? Do you ever wish you could just pig out or be unabashedly boorish & selfish like an ordinary old man & give the wisdom a miss for a while?

WOM: Yes.

MB: Oh come here you devil.