Tagged: “Poem of the Week”
Poem of the Week: “A Sign” by John McAuliffe
“A Sign” by Jonn McAuliffe fits well in the poetic tradition of mushrooms—Emily Dickinson and Slyvia Plath also wrote poems about them, and so have Paul Muldoon and David Wheatley. Somewhat surprisingly, however, “A Sign” begins with an un-poetic assertion, “Nothing fanciful in their welling up from the black earth.” Almost in spite of itself, the…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “In Her Silent Cloister” by Leontia Flynn
“In Her Silent Cloister” by Leontia Flynn imagines the 12th-Century nun, writer, and philosopher Héloïse du Paraclet, possibly alluding in the final stanza to her correspondence and affair with the theologian Peter Abelard. Written from Flynn’s experience as a new mother, this poem explores a common theme in the collection Taking Liberties, asking where inner…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Windharp” by John Montague
Windharp for Patrick Collins The sounds of Ireland, that restless whispering you never get away from, seeping out of low bushes and grass, heatherbells and fern, wrinkling bog pools, scraping tree branches, light hunting cloud, sound hounding sight, a hand ceaselessly combing and stroking the landscape, till the valley gleams like the pile upon a…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Seasons of the Lemon House” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
In her poem “Seasons of the Lemon House,” Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin explores the deep connection between the natural world, human experience, and language. The ebb and flow of light and darkness, warmth and frost, mirror the rhythms that shape our lives. With a keen eye for the interplay of interior, natural, and spiritual landscapes, Ní…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “The Elsewhere Empire” by Medbh McGuckian
Medbh McGuckian’s “The Elsewhere Empire,” from her new collection The Thankless Paths to Freedom (2024), explores the emotional and physical spaces that loss often occupies. She writes, “there is no after the war, the rain of an earlier day, / the balmy elsewhere of winglets past the flowers // in their rifles.” When a loved one…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “The May Baby” by Martin Dyar
In his poem “The May Baby,” Martin Dyar draws upon vivid natural imagery to create an ode to springtime. Dyar paints the portrait of the “May girl,” who seamlessly blends into this background of honey, doves, blossoms, and herons. “The May Baby” is infused with hope, drawing upon themes of connection and community across…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Jigsaw” by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
In her poem “Jigsaw,” Doireann Ní Ghríofa draws the reader into the physical and psychological complexities of motherhood. Using bodily descriptions and an emphasis on personal experience, Ní Ghríofa contrasts the feelings of uncertainty and anticipation that accompany sensing a baby wriggling in the womb with the settledness and comfort of a mother knowing her…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Ten Day Window” by Medbh Mcguckian
In her poem “Ten Day Window,” Medbh McGuckian creates a dream-like landscape, transporting the reader through the imagery of gardens, theaters, and ballrooms. McGuckian’s poem is deeply introspective, reckoning with themes of identity and public appearance while using fragmented moments to piece together an understanding of self. “Ten Day Window” is a part of…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Lunulae” by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Have you ever noticed the half-moon shapes at the base of your fingernails? Those are called “lunulae.” Doireann Ní Ghríofa is fascinated by these crescents—little astronomical wonders we carry with us wherever we go. Ní Ghríofa encourages her reader to find comfort in minute yet beautiful things in the face of our present social and…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Those Days” by Gerard Fanning
“Those Days,” a poem from Gerard Fanning’s final, unpublished collection, Slip Road, contemplates a fading vision, “I used to stand on my porch / and see as far as three days’ walk / but those days are long out of reach.” Vision, in the poem, is conditioned by the inevitable passage of time; and soon…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: For Gomez by Stephen Sexton
Happy Halloween from WFU Press! Today, we’re sharing “For Gomez” from Stephen Sexton’s second collection, Cheryl’s Destinies. The poems in this book are perfect for the holiday—from fortune tellers and tarot cards to werewolves and The Smashing Pumpkins. “For Gomez” is, as Sexton notes, “in affectionate memory” of actor Raúl Julia (1940–94), famous for his…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Ash Keys” by Michael Longley
The title of Michael Longley’s New Selected Poems comes from his poem “Ash Keys,” originally published in his fourth collection, The Echo Gate (1979). As Longley explains in a feature in The Irish Times, his wife, the critic Edna Longley, suggested using the poem title for the collection “because she likes that poem, and she thinks of…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Alteration” by David Wheatley
“Alteration,” a poem from David Wheatley’s collection Child Ballad, begins with a meditation on the transience of the self and of time, “the clock hands… / the self-subtracting hours they gave and took.” Written in memory of the poet Derek Mahon (1941–2020), the poem imagines an osprey flying over a “snow-fringed field” as a metaphor…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Terror” by Stephen Sexton
In his poem “Terror,” Stephen Sexton transports readers back in time and leads them through a fantastical environment complete with constellations, werewolves, knights, swords, and daggers. Following a family of three hiding from the moon-lit nighttime and its accompanying creatures, Sexton poses commentary on fear, historical legends, and what parents choose to share with their…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Going Feral” by Harry Clifton
“Going Feral” by Harry Clifton transposes the myth of Romulus and Remus or (Julia Fullerton-Batten’s 2015 photography series) and plays with the line between human and animal, the classical and the contemporary. Beginning “In a tenement room,” it speaks to the desperation of poverty in an urban sprawl (“the forest of cities”) and the alienation…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Accept instruction, foolish youth” by Ádhamh Ó Fialáin
The writer of this poem from the late Middle Ages seems to criticize his young lord, but in fact praises him, concluding that even the lord’s wrongdoing pales in comparison to his greatness. That shift of logic reflects the intricacy of 14th-century politics, indicating a complicated and perhaps mysterious hierarchy. As Michelle O Riordan writes…
Continue ReadingPoem of the Week: “Direction” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Searching about again to find my father
I must take a step backwards, for in the time
since I last saw him he has moved and changed
more than in all of his life—
Poem of the Week: “October” by Harry Clifton
“The big news around here is the fall of leaves
In Harrington Street and Synge Street,
Lying about in pockets, adrift at your feet . . .”
Poem of the Week: October Thoughts & Throwback
WFU Press’s newest book is here! Ciaran Carson’s From Elsewhere is a beautiful work featuring translations of the French poet Jean Follain juxtaposed alongside Carson’s original work. In his “Apropros,” Carson offers, “…[T]he word fetch…was in my mind throughout the writing of From Elsewhere.” He goes on to say, “A fetch is the act of fetching, bringing from a distance,…
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