… why should we care/ If a rose, a hedge, a crocus are uprooted/Like corpses, remote, crushed, mutilated? from The War Horse by Eavan BolandOn an autumn night, the road is clear,the fair green seething in its concrete grave. Nowhere to hitch a horse, nowhereto pasture the thousand ghostly sheepthat flood the narrow road,caught in the streetlamp’s amber. Along Church Street, they turn,horses, sheep, cattle, quick as cloudspassing across the moon,seeking the green that fed themthrough famine, tithes, and civil war –whinnies echo on St Rynagh’s gravestones. Jessica Traynor’s debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and her second collection, The Quick, was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice.

Source: The Irish Times June 11, 2021 22:52 UTC