In which we meet Sweeney

36. 14 July 2021

His name is actually spelled ‘Suibhne’

In that maddening way of Irish.

He has a lean intelligent face,

Brown eyes, black hair, what there is

Because he has the Celtic Church tonsure.

He has a brown woollen robe to his calves

Self-coloured from a black sheep,

A belt with a wooden cross on it and a knife.

His feet are bare, his hands long and sensitive.

He turned up at a Huffman meditation.

He met me at a campfire and I was a woman

And we talked through the night,

Though he was a monk and women forbidden.

He was born somewhere around the 5th century,.

He takes being my mentor very seriously

Although he gets impatient with my blather

And constant procrastination.

He plays harp but gave it up to become a monk.

He will die in the terrible dark years

After 535 AD when a volcano will blacken the skies

For two or three years. He will be an old man