Poetry Ireland connects people and poetry. We are committed to achieving excellence in the reading, writing and performance of poetry throughout the island of Ireland.
Poetry Ireland receives support from The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and we enjoy rewarding partnerships with arts centres, festivals, schools, colleges and bookshops at home and abroad.
Trumpet is a bite sized pamphlet with poetry, reviews, opinions and essays on poetry and the arts.
TheSpark.ie are delighted to bring you, free to download, 5 backdated issues below. The two poems featured here can be found in issue No 5.
Poetry Ireland
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Dublin 1
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www.poetryireland.ie
GLEAM
i.m. Alex Higgins
Patrick Moran
from Bearings (Salmon Poetry, 2015)
Even when he’d shrunken
to a waifish figure,
hustling for a pittance –
his shots wobbling in jaws,
his attempted snookers
no longer surely judged –
the glories of his prime
lurked in memory’s hold:
fugitive, stowaway …
There, in the arena’s
altar hush. Eyes defiant,
vodka-lit, he swaggers
towards the baize, impatient
to ram in the balls.
Disdaining caution,
he deploys spin and screw
and stun to keep a wavering
break alive: the testing brown;
a sweet cut on the blue;
that awkward pink rolled down
the table’s length. Leaving
the final sunken black;
his edgy gleam; the white
still on the speckless green.
Shirley McClure
from Stone Dress (Arlen House, 2015)
The reader who texted to say
she’d read the whole book at one sitting.
The reader who admitted
she only liked the sexy ones.
The man who simply said,
the thing is, my dad died too.
The reader who had lost a breast,
and was surprised to hear it spoken of.
The listener who confessed:
your work does nothing for me
on the page;
the listener who left.
The editor who emailed:
please send more.
The old friend who confides
at every public reading,
over the glass
of Lidl Chardonnay
God, I’m glad I never asked you out –
I’d hate to be in any of those poems.
