Paula Meehan

Poem of the Week: “The Exact Moment I Became a Poet” by Paula Meehan

was in 1963 when Miss Shannon
rapping the duster on the easel’s peg
half-obscured by a cloud of chalk

Poem of the Week: “Snowdrops” by Paula Meehan

So long trying to paint them, failing
to paint their shadows on the concrete path.

They are less a white than a bleaching out of green.

Poem of the Week: “Coda: Payne’s Grey” by Paula Meehan

Happy spring and happy National Poetry Month! As we begin a month known for its showers, Paula Meehan’s poem “Coda: Payne’s Grey” came to mind. The final poem in her collection, Painting Rain, it celebrates what poetry can capture and preserve, even as everything changes, like trying to capture an image of falling rain. Coda: Payne’s Grey I am trying to…

Picking a Poem for Ireland

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster, is currently promoting a campaign called A Poem for Ireland. This contest began in September when RTÉ asked followers to submit stand-out poems from the past century that encapsulated the Irish experience. With their nominations, followers submitted explanations for why their favorite should earn the recognition. Over…

Poem of the Week: “Swallows and Willows”

In Dharmakaya, Paula Meehan creates a beautiful poem, highlighting the parallels between her own Irish voice, and the voice of one of America’s most commemorated female poets–Sylvia Plath. February 11th marks the 52nd anniversary of Plath’s death, and we love the fact that this poem creates a space where the haunting, feminine poetics of two of our favorite writers…

5 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…

What does Ireland’s official Professor of Poetry do?

In September of last year, WFU Press’s very own poet, Paula Meehan, was appointed to serve as Ireland’s newest Professor of Poetry. This prestigious position, which is Ireland’s equivalent to the U.S. Poet Laureate, was founded by an independent Board of Trustees in response to Seamus Heaney’s 1995 win of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Of the six individuals (including…

Poem of the Week: “Not Weeding” by Paula Meehan

Nettle, bramble, shepherd’s purse –
refugees from the building site
that was once the back field,

Poem of the Week: “At Dublin Zoo” by Paula Meehan

At Dublin Zoo A four-year-old Seeing elephants For the first time ‘But they’re not blue’ –Paula Meehan, from Painting Rain (2009)

Poem of the Week: “Nomad Heart” by Paula Meehan

It’s our favorite month of the year: April! … also known as National Poetry Month. Our campus stalls have already been graced with “potty poetry,” and we will continue celebrating online by posting even more poetry than usual. To start with, here is an enlightening poem about changing times and weary souls. Nomad Heart for Kevin…

Paula Meehan touring United States

Wake Forest University Press poet and  current Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paula Meehan, has been charming audiences in the United States on her current reading tour. Earlier in March, Meehan appeared at HoCoPoLitSo’s Thirty-Sixth Annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry. And on Thursday, April 3, Meehan will be reading at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. The reading…

Book of the Month: Paula Meehan’s “Painting Rain”

For November, the book of the month is Painting Rain, the 2009 collection of poetry from Paula Meehan. Painting Rain is full of sadness, and death, and memory; images of the present are wrapped up with the past. This is a book about how things change, will always change, will never remain the same. In…

‘Tis the season for poetry readings

Everyone knows that poetry is best when listened to, so kick back, relax and belatedly celebrate National Poetry Day with some readings from our poets. Ciaran Carson reading “Snow” from Belfast Confetti Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin reads from The Sun-Fish Paula Meehan reads her poem “Death of a Field” from Painting Rain Michael Longley reads “Harmonica” from his Collected Poems Vona…

Endings and Beginnings

This past week, Harry Clifton gave his final lecture as Ireland Professor of Poetry, marking the end of his three year appointment to the post. Soon, Clifton will step down to make way for the newly-announced Paula Meehan, who will be the sixth poet to take the position. Clifton spent one year at Queen’s University…

Poem of the Week, plus Paula Meehan’s Appointment as Ireland Professor of Poetry

The View from Under the Table was the best view and the table itself kept the sky from falling. The world was fringed with red velvet tassels; whatever play ran in that room the tablecloth was curtains for. I was the audience. Listen to me laughing. Listen to me weeping. I was a child. What…

Happy World Poetry Day!!

Today, all of us a Wake Forest University Press hope you’re enjoying World Poetry Day!! Our internet community has been helping us celebrate in many ways. First, we’re excited to see that The Poetry Project for poetry and art from Ireland has recently added a new project inspired by Paula Meehan’s “My Father Perceived as…

Paula Meehan: Rebel with a Cause

Paula Meehan, born in Dublin in 1955, spent much of her childhood in England before finishing her primary school education at Dublin’s Central Model Girls’ School in Gardiner Street.  She began her secondary school education at St. Michael’s Holy Faith Covent in Finglas, but her time there was short lived.  Meehan was expelled from the…

Poetry & Music

Ireland has given us many pleasures, poetry and music among them. The only thing better than Irish music or poetry is an Irish poem sung in a song. Irish Folk singer Christy Moore has done just that with the title track off his latest album, “Folk Tale,” written by Irish poet Paula Meehan. Moore tells…