Tagged: “the wake forest book of irish women’s poetry”

In Memory of Eavan Boland

This is for you, goddess that you are.
This is a record for us both, this is a chronicle.
There should be more of them, they should be lyrical
and factual, and true, they should be written down
and spoken out on rainy afternoons, instead of which
they fall away…

Poem of the Week: “Amber” by Eavan Boland

It never mattered that there was once a vast grieving:

trees on their hillsides, in their groves, weeping—
a plastic gold dropping

through seasons and centuries to the ground—

Poem of the Week: “Melusine” by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

This week’s poem comes from Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s most recent volume, The Fifty Minute Mermaid, a selection of which was included in The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. Ní Dhomhnaill’s narrative poem, “Melusine,” is based on folklore most famously captured by the 14th century French writer Jean d’Arras. In the tale, Count Raymondin meets the…

Poem of the Week: “Ship of Death” by Kerry Hardie

After an unexpected Easter Monday hiatus, we have returned with another poem for National Poetry Month. Ship of Death for my mother Watching you, for the first time, turn to prepare your boat, my mother; making it clear you have other business now— the business of your future— I was washed-through with anger. It was…

Poem of the Week: “Grainne’s Answer to Burke’s Proposal” by Mary O’Malley

Grainne’s Answer to Burke’s Proposal Take me for one year certain hot and cold and strong. What woman will give you as much for that long? A year in a wild place. Take me or leave me as I am. –Mary O’Malley, from The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry (2011)

Poem of the Week: “Be Someone” by Rita Ann Higgins

In honor of National Poetry Month, WFU will be posting a poem a day for the entire month of April. Today’s poem is “Be Someone” by Rita Ann Higgins, a working class Irish poet and playwright. Be Someone For Christ’s sake, learn to type and have something to fall back on. Be someone, make something of…

Poem of the Week: “Scar” by Moya Cannon

Scar Why does it affect and comfort me the little scar where, years ago, you cut your lip shaving when half drunk and in a hurry to play drums in public. We step now to rhythms we don’t own or understand, and, with blind, dog-like diligence, we hunt for scars in tender places. –Moya Cannon,…

Poem of the Week: “Sleep” by Katie Donovan

This week’s Poem of the Week comes from one of our favorite anthologies of poetry, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women’s Poetry. As we near the end of the semester, with all its hustle and bustle, Katie Donovan’s poem “Sleep” feels particularly striking. The poem has a peaceful, relaxing tone, and artfully reminds us to…

Poem of the Week: “Love Song” by Sinéad Morrissey

Love Song I see light everywhere Over the bus driver the woman With her trolley in the street I see dusk I hear the clock at four I hear the silence in cupboards Birdsong Backwater dawn I taste drier than flour I smell the roots of trees Before I see their arms Shrieking On the…

A Lil Bit of Lit Crit: “The Copious Dark” by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

In his November 2010 review of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s The Sun-fish, William Logan of The New Criterion commented that “Ní Chuilleanáin loves this stillness, the timelessness of Ireland both passing and passed—stately, measured, the poems unfold in their own time, making very little concession to the reader. They’re full of material things, things with density…