Tenuous Roots

Having lived in three different countries, and dozens of places, I have felt a profound connection with communities that maintain their transient way of life. People get uprooted for all kinds of reasons; for the Irish Travellers it is a way of life that is centuries old. Nevertheless, their resilience and courage inspire. The perpetual yearning of people that lack a place to call home, was poignantly expressed by Georg Trakl, in his poem Gipsy.

GIPSY

The longing flames in their nightly glance
Toward that homeland they never find.
So they drift in an unfortunate fate,
That only melancholy may fathom completely.

The clouds lead their ways,
A migration of birds may sometimes escort them,
Until it loses thier track in the evening,
And the wind sometimes carries an Ave of bells

In their camp’s star-loniless,
So that their songs swell more longing
And sob from inherited curse and suffering,
That no stars of hope softly illuminate.

-Georg Traki