I’ve been pondering the most suitable poem to open this year’s selection all month. January calls for inspiration, motivation to persevere with New Year’s Resolutions, hope and promise to see us through what is for many, the darkest month of the year. But I like January.
Continue reading “Safe Sounds by Carol Ann Duffy”
On Friday morning I jolted awake at 5.45am, startled by a door slamming behind me in my dream. Unable to get back to sleep and irritated by a new clicking in the rotation of my ankle, I started to think about my body and how it’s held up in what has been its thirtieth year on this earth.
Continue reading “Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath”
A few months ago I visited the Seamus Heaney: Listen Again Now exhibition in the Bank of Ireland building in Dublin and passed a happy hour meandering through the wilds and words of his life.
When it came to choosing a poem for the month of May I wondered if I should seek out something Portuguese to compliment the ramble to Lisbon, and I did spend quite some time pondering over a bilingual collection of poetry in Ler Devagar, an utterly wonderful bookshop to be found in Lisbon’s LX Factory.
This month’s poem came into my hands on World Book Night. As part of the celebrations we were giving away copies of Jo Bell’s wonderful collection Kith through work and I’ve been tucking into it all week.
Every now and then in my weekly raid of the poetry collections at work I come across a poem which absolutely nails something. Whether it’s a feeling I’ve been having of late, something that connects with the chapter we’re reading that week, or just the general mood brought on by seasonal change or current affairs. This poem nailed it on several accounts.
Continue reading “A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted by John O’Donohue”
When I heard the news of Jenny Joseph’s death last month I had to pick up her poem Warning again. She was 85 when she passed away, but only 28 when she wrote this poem, the age I was when she died.
With the new year well and truly in play, I’m still preoccupied with resolutions and ideas of fresh starts. I love January, as mentioned earlier this month, because it feels like the only point in the year when time might just stand still. Of course when you’re counting down the days until payday that’s not always preferable but for me it always feels like a blessing in disguise.
There isn’t much God in my Christmas. Religion doesn’t have much part in my life any other day of the year so it would be a little hypocritical to suddenly warm up to him to geg in on some birthday party.
Continue reading “I heard the bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”
This month I made a trip home for the first time since last Christmas. It is perhaps the longest period I’ve gone without at least a flying visit and although this trip was less than a week, we managed to take in the three places closest to my heart – Dublin, Donegal and Tyrone.
...eats, reads & rambles. 