We Irish have a reputation for being handy with a spade, digging potatoes and turf; and when the potatoes stopped growing, no matter how much we dug, we planted our children in the ground. When we grew tired of planting our children we left for England, and when we arrived they gave us a spade … Continue reading ‘Keep Digging’ by David Atkinson
Tag: Poems about Ireland
‘Beyond the Pale’ by Ann Leahy
Beyond the Pale (in West Cork) I commit a minor act of appropriation - pick plants whose names I don’t know from the ditches to try and make my own of the unfamiliar: the rise ahead in the road the peak of Miskish behind me the arthritic finger of Coulagh bay before me. In my … Continue reading ‘Beyond the Pale’ by Ann Leahy
‘Songs of the the Sea’ by Eleanor Hooker
Songs of the Sea At Kilmore town ancient carols are sung, legend says the sea will drown their town. Casting stones into the sea is wrong, storm-crested waves drag silent sail down. Legend says the sea will drown their town, a silver coin beneath the mast brings luck. Storm crested waves drag silent sail down, … Continue reading ‘Songs of the the Sea’ by Eleanor Hooker
‘Aisling’ by Adam Wyeth
Beautiful girl with a broken harp who plays on the side of the street through wind and rain, her open case catching coins that flicker as leaves on a lake. Her plaintive notes which float like pleas then flee into a whooshing diaspora of rush- hour traffic as she plinks and plucks more … Continue reading ‘Aisling’ by Adam Wyeth
‘Skinny Dipping’ by Jean O’Brien
I’m Irish, we keep our clothes on most of the time. We perform contorted dances on beaches in Cork, or Donegal; undressing under not-yet-wet-towels. Worried that any gap might expose us, lay some body-part bare. It was the Immaculate Conception that did it, if Mary could conceive a child without removing her knickers, then by … Continue reading ‘Skinny Dipping’ by Jean O’Brien
‘The English Papers’ by Mike Gallagher
On Achill the post came twice each week – Tuesday brought Queenshead fivers, postmarked Ormskirk, Tamworth, Kilburn – short letters from villages of men transplanted en masse to alien trenches. Thursday brought brownpaper rolls, neatly wrapped; Anthony Jack flung them from his bike, cursed their weight, their wickedness, their Englishness with equal ferocities. The Achill … Continue reading ‘The English Papers’ by Mike Gallagher
‘Dublin Puzzle’ by Aoife Lyall
The porous bag sliced through. Sediment gathered in the corners. We upend the pieces into the lid and bottom. We shift through them, panning for edges, corners. We kneel on the green felt kings use to play chess and peer at each piece; inscrutable, divine, mysterious. The gradations, lines, shadings, out of place – the … Continue reading ‘Dublin Puzzle’ by Aoife Lyall
‘Finn MacCool offers his thumb’ by Laura McKee
to my salmon lips to see if I’m ready and when I drip when I spit it burns tells him all he needs to know and he wants to suck the knowing out of me Author's note: The Salmon of Knowledge is one of many stories surrounding the legend of Finn MacCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill) … Continue reading ‘Finn MacCool offers his thumb’ by Laura McKee
‘Armagh Tellings’ by Geraldine Snape
I remember hearing about Newtownhamilton and granny. I was told about how the hens scuttled around where Summer's swifts filled the farmyard. Told about the road to market taken By the broad carthorse that turned the wheel that churned the butter.. That was the pride of Armagh....and Dad wearing a top hat and Him perched … Continue reading ‘Armagh Tellings’ by Geraldine Snape
‘Door to door, Belfast 1969’ by Finola Scott
Imagine a curtained room table set with supper, the radio hums. A knock at the door. Shadows through glass. Staccato bullet-raps on wood. Outside, shoulders square set balaclavas snarl, a fist punches out a rattling can. A barrel winks, trigger oiled Collecting for the lads. Coins shake, paper unfolds. Purse empty, chest pulses. Boots to … Continue reading ‘Door to door, Belfast 1969’ by Finola Scott
andotherpoems.com 