The College Rower
(For Oliver St. John Gogarty)

Jesus, at first light,
Shivered, collectively,
Standing next the river
Gauzed in fog,

Buck Mulligan thinking to dip his oar
In Heraclitus’s river,
River streaming Joycean time,
River gauzed

In the fog of departure,
The fog of return,
Ulysses pulling his stopwatch
From the pocket of his voyage

To time the time
It takes to take
Him to row the tolling
Thames from Putney to Mortlake,

Row the Irish
Sea all the way to the azure
Ionian, where he will morph
Back into Odysseus,

Row the fog-gauzed
River of Existence,
Odysseus, Ulysses, Jesus,
Row the tolling river until

They break through
The dimension of time.

Philip Kuepper
(March 2012)

See also entries on Oliver St. John Gogarty’s son Dermot.