The Flowering Bars

by Charles Donnelly

After sharp words from the fine mind,
protest in court,
the intimate high head constrained,
strait lines of prison, empty walls,
a subtle beauty in a simple place.

There to strain thought through the tightened brain,
there weave
the slender cords of thought, in calm,
until routine in prospect bound
joy into security,
and among strictness sweetness grew,
mystery of flowering bars.

Charles Donnelly (1914-1937)

Dawe, Gerald. ed. Earth Voices Whispering: an Anthology of Irish War Poetry 1914-45 . Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2009. p.222.