Introduction to Voices in the Mist
There are places where the past seems never quite to have left us. Old roads, familiar hills and quiet streams can carry reminders of those who walked before us, and of the lives, stories and traditions they left behind.
Sometimes, as the light fades and mist settles across the land, we become more aware of that connection between past and present. Not through anything we can necessarily see or explain, but through the memories and influences that remain with us.
Voices in the Mist grew from that thought. It is a reflection on those who came before us, the love they carried for the land, and the ways in which their presence continues through what they passed on.
Perhaps we do not always walk alone. And perhaps remembering those who came before us is one way of honouring the road they left for us to follow.
Voices in the Mist
The light grows soft along the bóithrín,
where the old stones breathe in the cooling air.
The hills draw close, and the world slows down —
and somewhere between the light and shadow,
the veil grows thin.
They did not vanish when their day was done.
They did not depart to some far-off place.
They stepped into the mist that lies between
what we can see and what we carry deep —
a quiet presence, gentle and unhurried.
Do not look for them with eyes alone.
Listen instead, when the wind moves through the trees,
when the stream speaks low along the bank —
those are not echoes lost to time,
but voices carried on the wind.
Cuimhne — they live in the memory of the land.
The footprints worn into this very road
are not erased by rain or passing years.
Old stories travel beneath our steps,
while new ones rise with every passing year.
They ask for no grand words, no costly gift —
only that we respect the road we take,
that we walk gently on the earth they loved,
and keep a little silence in our hearts
where echoes of their lives remain.
So when the mist comes drifting down the hill,
remember the footsteps at your side —
it is the love of those who went before,
still travelling with us along the road,
as every road remembers every footstep.
Copyright © 2026 Pat Fitzgerald
All Rights Reserved
Reflection: In working on this poem, I considered how such great poets that inspired me and now I list as Inspirations. Like an Irish Language Poet Sean “Clarach” MacDomhnaill or Thomas Kinsella both of which have been great inspiration to why I write poetry. But Seamus Heaney has also become an Inspiration, who once said of Memory, remembering and writing —
“Memory has always been fundamental for me. In fact, remembering what I had forgotten is the way most of the poems get started.”
—Seamus Heaney
King’s Quote: Today comes from one that inspired me to write Poetry
“It was later in life… that something else important out of that early time became clear: the dignity and quiet of his own father, remembered as we talked about him. With an awareness of the generations as they pass.”
— Thomas Kinsella
Personal Notes:
After some time writing a number of poems on various topics over the past few weeks. I felt the need to return to an old style as it were and combine some of which I have begun using recently. Our inspirations or folks that we look up to are often brought to mind. But when we walk the same road as them and enjoyed some of what they have. And maybe like poets that inspired you or who brought you to enjoy this wonderful craft that we write. As a man into my 6th decade of life, I enjoy this craft and thank and honour those who walked before me. How are they marked If they ever were? This is where such a poem somes to mind for me. What about you? what or who inspired you?
Glossary:
Bóithrín (pronounced: boh-hreen) — A traditional, narrow country lane.
Cuimhne (pronounced: kwee-vneh) — Memory or remembrance.
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