Serve the Guinness with reverence
What man with a soul
would choose a beer over the Guinness.
Thin and pale, beer, like a callow youth,
rushes headlong into the glass,
squirted flippantly, half noticed,
subordinate to the barman's chatter.
But the Guinness -
ah, the Guinness - demands respect,
gives itself up slowly,
draws the barman into its blackness,
seduces him to silence.
As if in annoyance at being disturbed,
it billows dark storm clouds of Celtic passion;
calming slowly.....slowly... to black and white,
light and darkness,
the seen and the hidden.
It is the drink of the Irishman,
honestly bewildered by his own existence,
bubbling brightly away in ancient metaphor,
the bitter, still promise of death ever lurking beneath.
Yes, serve the Guinness with reverence,
it is the pouring out of the Celtic soul.
(Basil Hall 2000)