"I wanted to read or hear the narrative of someone else – a woman and a poet – who has gone here and been there." (Eavan Boland 1944-2020)
Cave of the Firbolg (Nano Reid, oil on board) Not even a trespass of sky to compromise the dark where blood beats in the body of the heart. Nobody thinks, Why do we do this? The nervous system ferries its thin shards of glass down among the clay, where the blunt flint of the soul [...]
I Have to Believe that the Body Aspires to a Soul I tell you/there was something about that woman/her face/undiluted/ lips open/as if she were waiting/for the sky to come/down on her. There was something about it that/I needed to know/something that/I wanted to remember/something/it was the light/that mattered/this woman/gathered/the light/ held it in-side [...]
'Words Like Stars' by Roisin Ní Neachtain How they flow unformed Then fix themselves like the stars Shivering and held up Worshipped And I And they Staggering and squawking Sweating and squabbling Night and day Wobbling words Singing Dust Dust Dust Corrosive mantles Wrought to a stain Stain us Stain the water to the earth [...]
Ludus or “A Thousand Poems” You’ve written a thousand poems for me, my friend --in your sapio-sudsy head… in a world as real as this one, where the ebb and flow of its soapy tides, brush off and on that murky shore— where all that can’t but is, all that shouldn’t but will, and all [...]
The First Casualty of the Summer Can a dropped ice cream be a joyful sight? A slight of thought, akin to road kill: a dead badger is still a badger that was once alive. Can a spark of juvenile pride (the curl tightly looped to touch the forehead of the whipped pile) be saved [...]
