d. Walsh gilbert

D. Walsh Gilbert is a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland. She has seven poetry collections, the most recent, Finches in Kilmainham (Grayson Books) and forthcoming, Bleat & Prattle (Clare Songbirds Publishing House). Her poems appear widely. She serves on the board of the Riverwood Poetry Series and as co-editor of the Connecticut River Review.

Gilbert lives in Farmington, Connecticut on a former sheep farm at the foot of the Talcott Mountain near the watershed of the Farmington River, previously the homelands of the Tunxis and Sukiaugk peoples and near the oldest site of human occupation in Connecticut, dating back 12,500 years. She welcomes turkey, bear, and bobcat as daily visitors from the forest behind her home, writes every day, and visits her family in County Monaghan, Ireland as often as possible. 

elemental hermitage

The first construction must be the hearth—

bluestone quarried, shaped, and honed. Bricks set.

Made of river clay still holding the memories

of its mountains. They’re the age-old sentinels.

Next, place wrought andirons. To sacrifice

hewn logs. The ritual is one of fire—receiving ash

from a felled snag. Every natural body

can elucidate new forms. Every sacred iteration

wears its name: seed, rootling, sprout, timber,

deadfall, ash. There’s a calculus in that.

A seed locked within a pinecone holds potential.

It lives warm within the armor of its first home.

It could plant here or there or nowhere at all—

the finding of its presence is a function of time.

Read D. Walsh’s work and more in Solum Journal Volume V (forthcoming).