dangerous weather the garden exhales puffballs rupture grasses pollinate in the gilded breeze poppies pump their milky sap capsules shake themselves out the air heavy with wind-borne seed your blown kisses remembered drift of your lips waft of your hand my open mouth dandelion clocks … Continue reading A poem by Eileen Sheehan
Mirrored She visited again last night, no pike this time. She was singing too. Her song is the sound of a heavy body Dragging itself, deadly, up the stairs. Her malady not too dissimilar to that thud-thump heartbeat In my ears. She brought mirrors into my mind and in my mind she filled the mirrors with crows, huge-beaked, hungry crows. That fed. And though … Continue reading Two poems by Eleanor Hooker
Lilies of the Field Plump nipple blossoms more like – neatly sewn onto a blue bodice. Virgin surprise! One wink and they’re blown confetti on wet ground. Unrelated Images Sequence Those images I had trashed sing now their separation. I. An arch forms beneath the new forsythia leaf enter the moorhen in her emerald stockings. She shakes off the water drops. II. … Continue reading Two poems by C. Murray
Mash I was at a village fete with you in the sunshine, hand in hand bouncy castle, tombola, homemade jam I judged the mashed potato contest giving marks for presentation, flavour, consistency. The winner, a dimpled woman of Amish appearance. What’s your secret? I asked before I woke. It’s about love, she said, all about love. What To Do With My Ashes … Continue reading Two poems by Kate Dempsey
The Lunar Spread On Half Moon Street we eat Tunisian orange cake, under a painting of a melon that spills seeds like love. Over Notre Dame the moon is a plate, tossed by a Greek waiter from rue Hachette. Clear of Galway’s rooftops the full moon – bald as a skull – crowns the night. When she is van Gogh yellow and mooning above, … Continue reading Two poems by Nuala Ní Chonchúir
For the Unkept House Fill the bucket with water. Fill the coffin with stones. There’s a full moon over the river and there’s no going home. Make a well in the water. Make a house in the dark. There’s a full moon over the meadow and there’s no going back. Sweep the stars from the window. Sweep the dust from the door. There’s a full … Continue reading ‘For the Unkept House’ by Vona Groarke
One of Each You were nearly Nemain and Macha for a while, as I reversed into the idea of two not one. I turned to books to see how to deal with motherhood again. Born in the hot-house of Gemini, Dáire, you were all ready for the bull’s-eye. Small, dark, but sturdy like an oak; you emerged – just like I imagined the stoic … Continue reading A poem by Barbara Smith
i and the Village (after Marc Chagall) Dew drops into jade a three-quarter moon. Love O love! Your uprooted flower dissipates Its scentedness onto my hand, soon O soon recalling to me a certain music – My fate was always to leave the place where moon danced with subtle Neptune! All dissolves – Save your remembered face, Your laughing in the street and your … Continue reading ‘i and the Village’ by C. Murray
And Other Poems 