Wake Forest University Press

Irish Poetry

Nuala Ni Dhomhnail - The Astrakhan Cloak

"Certainly the work of both poets has much in common: sensuality, wit, irreverence and a delight in lore, legend (particularly local legend) and linguistic dexterity. And these exuberant poems filter a modern suburban existence through the beguiling miasma of a more ancient Ireland.... What Muldoon calls in one poem 'the monsters of the imagination, the demons of the air,' dart through the book like sly witches on a wild night. The poems often read like spells set to invigorate and intrigue." The Sunday Tribune

 

4. First Sight (from "The Voyage")

I was lying in a hospital bed
spaced out on Valium
when I first caught sight
of the island from my Zeppelin.

As we drifted over
I could make out the cattle
up to their knees in clover
and hay good enough to bottle.

As we studied the patchwork
of farms and village streets
the islanders came out in currachs
with their arms full of treats.

This island has flowers and plants
and exotic nuts galore
and moves swiftly about the planet
from Alaska to the Azores.
 

$10.95
1993   112 pages
In Irish; translated by Paul Muldoon
ISBN 978-0-916390-54-9