Monthly Archives: January 2015

Promises, Promises by Paul Muldoon

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I am stretched out under the lean-to Of an old tobacco-shed On a farm in North Carolina. A cardinal sings from the dogwood For the love of marijuana. His song goes over my head. There is such splendour in the … Continue reading →

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Rhythm of Life By Eileen Carney Hulme

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

The clock is silent nowadays clocks no longer need to make that rhythmic sound of life. We have moved on and everything is changed I am no longer sad I don’t weep for you. In still moments I see you … Continue reading →

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Indian Summer By Eileen Carney Hulme

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

Like a deep blue wave of passion you shore into the room where I sit waiting quietly, open-booked. We have moved through days, loss, pain to hold this moment, this picture postcard seascape of gentle harbouring. You say ‘I knew … Continue reading →

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Sleeping in Blue by Eileen Carney Hulme

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I lean into you, we bury down in the dunes the breeze holds like a whisper you stroke my brown knees your fingers are my unspoken thoughts the silence is sensuous, suffuses like scent of sandalwood I watch the sea … Continue reading →

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A Lament By Katharine Tynan

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

(For Holy Cross Day, 1914) Clouds is under clouds and rain For there will not come again Two, the beloved sire and son Whom all gifts were rained upon. Kindness is all done, alas, Courtesy and grace must pass, Beauty, … Continue reading →

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The Curse By J. M. Synge

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

o a sister of an enemy of the author’s who disapproved of ‘The Playboy’ Lord, confound this surly sister, Blight her brow with blotch and blister, Cramp her larynx, lung, and liver, In her guts a galling give her. Let … Continue reading →

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Prayer Before Birth By Louis Mac Neice

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I am not yet born; O hear me. Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club-footed ghoul come near me. I am not yet born, console me. I fear that the human race may … Continue reading →

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As By Paul Muldoon

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

By Paul Muldoon As naught gives way to aught and oxhide gives way to chain mail and byrnie gives way to battle-ax and Cavalier gives way to Roundhead and Cromwell Road gives way to the Connaught and I Am Curious … Continue reading →

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The Ruins of Timoleague Abbey By Seán Ó Coileáin

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I am gut sad. I am flirting with the green waves, wandering the sand, feeding reflection into the seaweed foam. That Shaker’s moon is up. Crested by corn-colored stars and traced by those witchy scribblers who read the bone-smoke. No … Continue reading →

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Tomorrow By Dennis O’Driscoll

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

Tomorrow I will start to be happy. The morning will light up like a celebratory cigar. Sunbeams sprawling on the lawn will set dew sparkling like a cut-glass tumbler of champagne. Today will end the worst phase of my life. … Continue reading →

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The Wish, By a Young Lady By Laetitia Pilkington

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I ask not wit, nor beauty do I crave, Nor wealth, nor pompous titles wish to have; But since, ’tis doomed through all degrees of life, Whether a daughter, sister, or a wife; That females should the stronger males obey, … Continue reading →

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Collaboration By Ciarán Carson

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

I am being paraded through the streets with my head shaved, with no memory of what I have done to deserve this. I run a gauntlet of women who call me slut and whore, staggering under their fusillade of accusation: … Continue reading →

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‘Quoof’ By Paul Muldoon

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

How often have I carried our family word for the hot water bottle to a strange bed, as my father would juggle a red-hot half-brick in an old sock to his childhood settle. I have taken it to so many … Continue reading →

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Elegy for a Child By Paula Meehan

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

It is not that the spring brings you back. Birds riotous about the house, fledglings learn to fly. Nor that coming on petals drifted in the orchard is like opening your door, a draught of pastel, a magpie hoard of … Continue reading →

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Please Vote From The Shortlist Ireland’s Best Loved Poem

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

If you don’t vote you can’t complain about the winner http://apoemforireland.rte.ie/vote/ And the finalists are: 1. A Christmas Childhood by Patrick Kavanagh 2. A Disused Shed in Co Wexford by Derek Mahon 3. Dublin by Louis MacNeice 4. Easter 1916 … Continue reading →

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Gougane Barra By Jeremiah Joseph Callanan

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

Gougane Barra ‘There is a green island in lone Gougane Barra, Where Allua of songs rushes forth as an arrow, In deep-valley’d Desmond – a thousand wild fountains Come down to that lake from their homes in the mountains. There … Continue reading →

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Rory By Louis de Paor ( A Cork Poem)

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

Rory Cork City Hall 1976 A million miles away from you right at the back of the hall my heart was beating the drums of my hands; I hadn’t a note in my head only the grace-notes you picked from … Continue reading →

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When All the Others Were Away at Mass by Seamus Heaney.

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

IRELAND’S FAVOURITE POEM When all the others were away at Mass by Seamus Heaney In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984 When all the others were away at Mass I was all hers as we peeled potatoes. They broke the silence, let fall … Continue reading →

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The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks by Paula Meehan

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

It can be bitter here at times like this, November wind sweeping across the border. Its seeds of ice would cut you to the quick. The whole town tucked up safe and dreaming, even wild things gone to earth, and … Continue reading →

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Quarantine by Eavan Boland

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Author Annette J Dunlea Irish Writer

In the worst hour of the worst season of the worst year of a whole people a man set out from the workhouse with his wife. He was walking – they were both walking – north. She was sick with … Continue reading →

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