Caitriona O’Reilly
Poem of the Week: “Polar” by Caitríona O’Reilly
By means of this the photon
is deflected into darkness,
our white-heat leaking from us.
Poem of the Week: “Blue Poles” by Caitríona O’Reilly
Freedom is a prison for the representative savant
addled on bath-tub gin and with retinas inflamed
from too long staring into the Arizona sun
or into red dirt which acknowledges no master
but the attrition of desert winds and melt-water.
Poem of the Week: “The Antikythera Mechanism” by Caitríona O’Reilly
You may have already noticed the odd mechanical look of the Google logo this morning. To our delight, today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 115th anniversary of the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism, the first-known analog computer used by the ancient Greeks as a sort of calendar and predictor of astronomical positions. Caitríona O’Reilly’s poem about this very…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Snow” by Caitríona O’Reilly
Photo courtesy of Christina Berry The Winter Solstice is upon us as of this week. As temperatures drop, snow will fall and blanket the ground with its hushed whiteness. Every snap of a twig, crunch of ice, and rush in the trees is amplified in the silence of snow. In today’s poem “Snow,” Caitríona O’Reilly’s…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Clotho” by Caitríona O’Reilly
It’s publication week for Caitríona O’Reilly’s new volume Geis (available now in print, iBook, and Kindle editions). This week’s featured poem is a sneak peek into this wonderful book. For more on O’Reilly’s inspiration, writing process, and more, check out our Q&A with the poet. Happy reading, poetry lovers! Clotho after Camille Claudel And in the end it was…
Continue Reading“It felt like a breaking of some taboo I’d placed myself under”: Caitríona O’Reilly on writing Geis
Caitríona O’Reilly’s Geis was published in 2015, and in honor of its publication, WFU Press interns Shannon Magee and Alex Muller asked her about her influences, her writing process, and the relationship between science, myth, and poetry.
Continue ReadingIntroducing Geis by Caitríona O’Reilly
In her third collection of poetry, Caitríona O’Reilly presents a cabinet of curiosities, landscapes ranging from Iceland to Iowa, and a cast of characters including Jackson Pollock, Camille Claudel, and Clint Eastwood. Moving between the scientific and the supernatural, O’Reilly is consistently sharp with language that is Latinate, tactile, and intuitive, what Michael Longley has…
Continue Reading5 things we’re looking forward to in 2015
Though it may look like we’re late to the “Top 10 list” train that hits at the end of each year, we thought it might be nice to look forward rather than back. Here are a few things we’re looking forward to this year: 1. Yeats turns 150! 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of W.B. Yeats’s…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Sleep and Spiders” by Caitríona O’Reilly
We are looking forward to kicking off next year’s publishing calendar with Caitríona O’Reilly’s newest volume. But since it’ll be many months until we can share those poems with you, we chose one of her poems, “Sleep and Spiders,” from The Wake Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume I. As the editor of that volume…
Continue ReadingBEST OF 2013: WFU Press Style
It’s that time of year again. Christmas trees are going up, people are frantically searching for just the right present, holiday plans are being made and, of course, The Best Of lists are being released all month. Maybe you watched that video about the best of Youtube in 2013 or heard Miley Cyrus was named…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Augury” by Caitríona O’Reilly
This week’s poem is by Caitríona O’Reilly, whose poems are featured in our recent anthology, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. Last fall, the Wake Forest community was offered the opportunity to listen to O’Reilly, along with Rita Ann Higgins, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Leontia Flynn, as the Women’s Anthology tour kicked off…
Continue ReadingArts and Culture: O’Reilly Broadside
It’s easy to quickly glance at the image associated with Caitríona O’ Reilly’s poem “Octopus” and see the connection; the image is a direct representation of the title. It all seems pretty standard. However, as I delve deeper into the poem, I find that the illustrated octopus is not only strikingly apt, but is responsible…
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