Our first poem for 2018 is an extract from ‘Songs from Typhoid Mary’ from Paul Muldoon’s Lamentations, translations of classic Irish poems. Hell’s Kitchen (1908) As I roved out in the West Fifties In 1895 I found myself in Hell’s Kitchen Among my own kind The screams from behind shutters Clotheslines flecked with soot Urine […]
December 2017 – Poem of the Month
December’s Poem of the Month comes from Michael Coady’s latest collection of poetry, prose and photographs, Given Light. Last Tryst After she’s showered she stands before the glass to make up her face, adjusts her hair and earrings, applies a rose lipstick — the kind that boasts of perfect pout, hydrating shine. She puts […]
November 2017 – Poem of the Month
November’s Poem of the Month comes from Aifric Mac Aodha’s recently published bilingual collection, Foreign News (2017), with translations by David Wheatley. Cailín Bréagach na mBráithre do Dhonncha O’Rourke (Segovia, 2017) GLUAIS Aidhnín malltriallach an dorcha le dubh, sna nótaí cúil — an nath, an nod. Na leabhair nite, thuar a thosach ach fáistine fola, ní mheánn brobh; nó go […]
October 2017 Poem of the Month
October’s Poem of the Month The Gallery Press is delighted to be publishing Conor O’Callaghan’s new collection, Live Streaming, on 19 October. Grace They’re coming to collect the table I’m writing on. They texted a while ago to say they were leaving a suburb four miles south. Midweek, early evening: traffic should be light. I thought of […]
September 2017 – Poem of the Month
September’s Poem of the Month The Gallery Press is delighted to be publishing Andrew Jamison’s new collection, Stay, on 28 September. September Night ushers in September and streetlights flicker-flicker, the last long evening leaves but nobody grieves when the last leaf quits its tree to lay down autumn’s decree to not take with a pinch of salt […]
August 2017 – Poem of the Month
August’s Poem of the Month Ciaran Carson’s poem ‘Home’ originally appeared in Breaking News (2003) which will soon be available as an ebook. Home hurtling from the airport down the mountain road past barbed wire snagged with plastic bags fields of scrap and thistle farmyards from the edge of the plateau my eye zooms into […]
July 2017 – Poem of the Month
July’s Poem of the Month Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is reading with Vona Groarke at the West Cork Literary Festival on July 19th. Late on a summer evening . . . Late on a summer evening The houses are parting with heat And the streets are warm As a bedroom full of sleeping children The wheels […]
June 2017 – Poem of the Month
Congratulations to Vona Groarke on winning the Pigott Poetry Prize at Listowel Writers’ Week Away I babysit by Skype, breakfast to their lunch, lunch to their dinner. I straighten uniforms, ask French, nag music practice, argue Friends, trim their Bebo access. I touch their silky faces on my screen. I am three thousand miles ago, […]
May 2017 – Poem of the Month
Justin Quinn’s ‘May’ is our Poem of the Month May You can see so much less of the world in summer — chicory a man’s height, ferns uncurled, the burdocks tall and blowsy. The heat is thick and waste-ground weeds as one rise up — their stems so quick in answer to the sun, their barbs […]
April 2017 – Poem of the Month
Pearse Hutchinson’s ‘April’ is our Poem of the Month April The dandelions are out in all their glory: each flower could rival the sun. They line both sides of a not too straight back-garden path — eleven or ten yellows on either side. And now: a Magpie makes an Entrance and walks between the blazing golden ranks, […]
