Tag: Contemporary Irish Women Poets
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“Moss” and other poems by Niamh Twomey
Homing Salmon Under the gush of shower water your greying skin flails. In your mind you wade back to the brook, the water icy even in summer, your seven siblings balancing on the pebbled belly of the River Fergus, suds in your hair, brothers dunking you under, ice forming in your brain, penetrating your veins,…
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“Words Like Stars” and other poems by Roisin Ní Neachtain
Janus His Janus head looks both ways, Double-jointed at the neck. The honey juice of the persimmon Bursts from their mouths, Babbling tales in frothy tones. A river parts his muscles. The knot in his guts is split. Inimical flesh in the dour night, Unborn in blackness, You seek, four-eyed, for memories that the oil…
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“Irish Twins” and other poems by Roberta Beary
Genetics Your eyes are big and round like your father’s but while his are the color of the Irish Sea yours are the color of the muddy fields on my father’s land fit only for the peasants who worked them. abortion day a shadow flutters the fish tank Publication credit: Rattle #47, Spring 2015 (ed.…
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“Lúb ar Lár” and other poems by Máire Dinny Wren
Lúb ar Lár and other poems by Máire Dinny Wren. Original Irish versions followed by English translations by Máire Dinny Wren and Kathryn Daily Ar an Chladach Dhearóil Is cuimhin liom a bheith ag snámh, Is cuimhin liom a bheith ar an tanalacht, Is cuimhin liom a bheith ar an doimhneacht, Is cuimhin liom a…
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Grafted: Referendum 2018 and other poems by Ann Leahy
Making for Open Today she is learning to walk again. One month after a minor fall, my mother heaves and plants each foot in turn, toes dragging the hardwood floor. Her eyes are fixed ahead as far as they can go beyond her new walking frame, which she grips and shoves, elbows unbent, as if…
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Sequence: “Motherhood” and other poems by Laura Daly
The Leaking Breast Premature mother’s milk escapes my swollen breast Unapologetically heralding the other inside. ‘You’ll never be lonely again’ the inane distortion of the truth of never Occupying aloneness. Your body holds but a temporary occupier Once released your mind will be prostrate before them Forever. Simultaneous ecstasy and anguish. You will crave The…
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“Alone on the Blackstock Road” and other poems by Aine McAllister
Alone on The Blackstock Road I buy a yellow armchair and a stone grey bookcase, carry books from the attic in Ireland, choose titles I think speak something of me. I sit at the table and watch buses stop outside and strangers look, my hackles rise, I lift a shoulder and twist my back to…
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“Ecliptic” and other poems by Karen O’Connor
Red He said my chi was unbalanced Suggested I wear a red linen shawl Around my waist – to keep my liver warm Yoda of the herb world Laughed at my expression Admitted it sounded odd But red always means heat, he explained So I wore it, next to my kidneys Like the scarlet woman…
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“The Unfinished Poem” and other poems by Caroline Johnstone
The Unfinished Poem The house his mind once called its home Has gaping roofs, and paint-cracked eaves, Of forget-me-not blues The frosted brittle skeletons of history and wit served now As a porridge of forgetfulness, faint echoes haunt Sweet gentle kisses of remembrance Dementia’s wraiths roam shadowed emptied rooms, Herald long laments for lonely roads…
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“Thrushes In The Rowan Tree” and other poems by Maureen Boyle
Christmas Box There is honey and chocolate on our doorstep since Christmas—sweet box and coral flower— one on either side. The heuchera with ruffled cocoa-coloured leaves hunkers in the corner but the sarcococca or sweet box is where we step inside by design so that on nights as dark as winter and full of storm…
Chris Murray 