Tagged: “Irish Women’s Poetry”
Poem of the Week: “The Smell of Blood” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
I wake up, and my hands are sticky
With the smell of blood.
And though there’s not a smudge nor blot
In eyeshot, nor any soul
Poem of the Week: “Poem in Homage to Built Things in Three Dimensions” by Leontia Flynn
Sunlight, yellow, on an upright gable
standing by waste-ground, a bright autumn sky
behind it and a foreground of low rubble,
transforms place into geometry—
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: “Away” by Vona Groarke
Away We have our own smallholding: persimmon tree, crawl space, stoop, red earth basement, ceiling fans, a job. Hours I’m not sure where I am, flitting through every amber between Gales and Drumcliffe Road. I paint woodwork the exact azure of a wave’s flipside out the back of Spiddal pier and any given morning pins…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Open Rose” by Medbh McGuckian
Open Rose The moon is my second face, her long cycle Still locked away. I feel rain Like a tied-on dress, I clutch it Like a book to my body. His head is there when I work, It signs my letters with a question-mark; His hands reach for me like rationed air. Day by day…
Continue ReadingNuala Ní Dhomhnaíll featured on passport
Ireland revealed its new passport design on Monday, and people are talking. The majority of the media hype revolves around the borderless map of Ireland on page three. The map’s subtle disregard of Ireland’s political north-south divide in favour of the topographical depiction of the island as a whole is meant to emphasize citizenship over territoriality, a spokesman…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “On Cutting One’s Finger While Reaching for Jasmine” by Medbh McGuckian
(photo from flowersreview.blogspot.com ) On Cutting One’s Finger While Reaching for Jasmine She talked about the aboutness of life, the eternal false illumination of the leftover nights, her lavender- skirted self who paced around the tousled bedroom, the otherwise good you. She incessantly made Os, Os of all sizes, Os inside one another, always drawn backwards in…
Continue Reading“Legend of the Walled-up Wife” featured in The Antioch Review
The spring 2013 issue of The Antioch Review takes a thoughtful look at our recent volume, Legend of the Walled-up Wife, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s translations of Ileana Mălăncioiu’s poetry. Written under the Ceaușescu regime, the book has dark, chilling imagery throughout and critic Benjamin S. Grossberg writes: “Mălăncioiu often blurs the line between life and death, creating the sense…
Continue ReadingHappy 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…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Again” by Kerry Hardie
This poem by Kerry Hardie is from The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. The best part of winter is knowing that spring must come “again,” and the bad weather and cold temperatures must come to an end. Today on March 1st, we say, “Here’s to Spring!” Again Spring comes roundly, as the round calls…
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