Wake Forest University Press

Irish Poetry

Eilean Ni Chuilleanain - The Magdalene Sermon & Earlier Poems

"It is the 'green leaf of language' twisting through these poems that gives the reader the necessary encouragement to enter into a world of strange occurences, of not totally comprehensible connections, of conversations without obvious contexts, and of dream-like encounters." Douglas Sealy, Irish Times

"It is fitting that Mary Magdalene--who has been seen as whore, apostle, love, and priestess--be the patron saint of this book.  Ni Chuilleanain's eccentric poems uncover hidden dramas in many guises, and she continually holds us captive by her luminous voice." Molly Bendall, Denver Quarterly

"The Magadalene Sermon is simple, uncluttered, and limpid, and Ni Chuilleanain's poems are graceful and marvelouslly unfussy; she seems incapable of writing a superfluous line." Jonathan Allison, Irish Literary Supplement

Poem from The Magdalene Sermon and Earlier Poems (1991)

"St Mary Magdalene Preaching at Marseilles"
by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin


Now at the end of her life she is all hair –
A cataract flowing and freezing – and a voice
Breaking loose from the loose red hair,
The secret shroud of her skin:
A voice glittering in the wilderness.
She preaches in the city, she wanders
Late in the evening through shaded squares.

The hairs on the back of her wrists begin to lie down
And she breathes evenly, her elbows leaning
On a smooth wall. Down there in the piazza,
The boys are skimming on toy carts, warped
On their stomachs, like breathless fish.

She tucks her hair around her,
Looking beyond the game
To the suburban marshes.

Out there a shining traps the sun,
The waters are still clear,
Not a hook or a comma of ice
Holding them, the water-weeds
Lying collapsed like hair
At the turn of the tide;

They wait for the right time, then
Flip all together their thousands of sepia feet.

$8.95
1991   64 pages
paperback
ISBN 978-0-916390-43-3