“Once more I went down by the River Fane
again, on a sunny summer’s day,
below the old stone bridge at Inniskeen,
following the Patrick Kavanagh way
and I sat by the flowing brown river,
watching it flow, eleven years after
my first visit one day in September
in the year two-thousand and four, for your
anniversary, Patrick Kavanagh.
On the day of my first visit I saw
a white butterfly flit by brown water,
but on this day it was an Emperor
butterfly I saw settle softly
on the dew-wet grass by the river.
It was a sign, another reminder,
marvels are seen in the ordinary.”
