Weekly Poetry: For Daniel Berrigan

May 27, 2013

By Lawrence Welsh

become
as name:
willows descending
or building another
of longevity
some call fast in

a prison first
or lent’s regrets of carrying on –
those obituaries of all –
the one we will write –
mother mentions father’s day
and precept – lecturer as carrier
carrier of christ’s blood
we know
never know
only light
the wanderings of desert sons

This piece was written by:

Lawrence Welsh

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Lawrence Welsh first traveled to New Mexico and Texas in 1989. Five years later, he moved to El Paso, where he still lives. A first generation Irish American and award-winning journalist, Welsh has published eight books of poetry, including Begging for Vultures: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2009 (University of New Mexico Press, 2011). This collection, which became a Southwest and El Paso Times bestseller, won the 2012 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry and was named a “Notable Book” by Southwest Books of the Year. A winner of the Bardsong Press Celtic Voice Writing Award in Poetry, Welsh is an associate professor of English at El Paso Community College. He’s married to Lisa McNiel, a professor and poet, and they have two children, Megan and Patrick. Welsh’s journalism awards include the Society of Professional Journalists Bill Farr Reporting Award, the Copley Los Angeles Newspapers Award, The Jessie Steensma Endowment Scholarship, and the Women in Communications Endowment Award. In 2011, Irish America Magazine in New York City named him one of the “Top 100 Irish Americans” of the year. In 1979, he co-founded The Alcoholics, the L.A. punk rock band. Artifix Records of Southern California will soon release East of Sepulveda: 1979-1982, a retrospective of the band’s studio and live cuts.

New Mexico Mercury