‘Self-storage ‘ by Vona Groarke from her new collection Double Negative is our July Poem of the Month Self-storage When I send my past to the lock-up in fifteen numbered, see-through boxes that two men lug down five flights and hoist into an unmarked van I...
‘Heart Surgery ‘ by Frank McGuinness from his forthcoming collection The Wedding Breakfast is our June Poem of the Month Heart Surgery My love, he’s an Olympic champion. Wimbledon? He’s won more than seven times. As a boy he survived pogroms in Kiev. As a...
‘I have managed to keep . . . ‘ by Michael Hartnett is April’s Poem of the Month ‘I have managed to keep . . .’ I have managed to keep hysteria at arm’s length; I have managed to sleep, and wake with a partial strength undone at the first door I knock...
March’s Poem of the Month is ‘Spring’ by Alan Gillis Spring You might have butterflies for no reason, all antsy as if in anticipation of the leaves’ first look-and-see-me. You might crack your nut trying to take in the what of it, its here and this...
February’s Poem of the Month is ‘Valentine’ by Frank McGuinness Valentine I gave my love my life to wear. He braided it into his hair. And with a comb of honey steel, I tasted him, I touched his skin. But life is fleeting as the wind, Sweet love...
Our first Poem of the Month for 2019 comes from Michelle O’Sullivan’s 2015 collection The Flower and the Frozen Sea. Januaries 1 Broken daylight and the wind singing, the sun in threads can’t reach these stone- dense hills or the rain-fed lake. It’s a...
