In ancient Ireland poets underwent a rigorous training, an apprenticeship.  The severity of the process reflected the high status and recognised power of the poets, the bards. In this reading I have attempted a meditation upon these ancestral poets of mine. The images are all my own and taken variously in the foothills of Na Staighre Dubha, the Blackstairs Mountains and Rinn an Dubhain, The Hook Peninsula,  The dolmen is Brownstown Dolmen, Co. Carlow with reputedly the largest capstone of all the dolmens.