Last Sunday, the inimitable poet and musician Ciaran Carson died after an illness. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, into an Irish-speaking family, poet Ciaran Carson attended Queen’s University, Belfast. He held the position of traditional arts officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1998 and was appointed director of the Seamus…
Carol Ann Duffy’s classic poetry collection The World’s Wife – is a deft, funny and often moving exploration of the women behind the scenes, playing the supporting role and hidden from history. The saying goes that ‘behind every great man there is a great woman’, and while that may or may not be true, Carol…
It’s National Poetry Day today and in celebration, here is Fox by Alice Oswald, who is fast becoming one of my favourite poets. The last stanza of this poem is so beautiful. Enjoy! Fox I heard a cough as if a thief was there outside my sleep a sharp intake of air a fox…
Kerrie O’Brien is being hailed as a key new voice in Irish Poetry. Her collection Illuminate is earning rave reviews from writers such as Sebastian Barry (who compared her to Keats) and Joseph O’Connor and it is easy to see why. Imagine the sun pouring in through a stained glass window – Illuminate captures that…
Read more Illuminate by Kerrie O’Brien – A Review and Giveaway for World Poetry Day
It’s World Poetry Day today and here is a recent poem from Paul Durcan, one of my all time favourite poets. The WB Yeats Shopping Centre is taken from his most recent collection, The Days of Surprise. The WB Yeats Shopping Centre This morning I visited the W. B.Yeats Shopping Centre For the first time…
Today marks the 150th anniversary of Ireland’s greatest poet, WB Yeats, who was born on this day in 1865. A host of events are taking place worldwide to mark this important year and you can check them out at the Yeats 2015 website. Here is my favourite Yeats poem. What one would you read today?…
Today is World Poetry Day and one of my favourite Irish poets is Christy Brown. Obviously Christy Brown is mostly known for his autobiography My Left Foot, which features in my list of 100 Irish Novels, but in his short career he also published two novels (Down All the Days and Wild Grow The Lilies)…
Read more World Poetry Day – Christy Brown, Background Music
