My poem Living with Tomas was shortlisted for the Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2024.
Living with Tomas
The book lice love Tomas Tranströmer.
When they sprint across his pages
I can hear them sing in Swedish.
His words make them joyful
and for a moment they forget
with every page-turn their lives
can be wiped onto the paper
to the silence of a blood clot.
What decides their death
is how long I linger on each poem.
They act goofy on the page,
like commuters wearing lifejackets,
or carrying packed suitcases to a dry country.
All of them are just born, starting new lives
except for the five-week old elders, who lie
listless, face to face, in an endless buffet of eggs.
The bedrooms are located in the spines of the books
where they keep their kitsch, where they ride
on fungi deposits stored away for winter,
play king of karaoke and warm dancing,
kiss each other goodnight on the forehead
and sleep knotted like briars. When retiring
from eating glue and disfiguring pages,
their organs speak in clicks to new words learned.
This close to Tomas Tranströmer they fall
asleep in the pages as in sheets of sugar.
Living with Tomas
The book lice love Tomas Tranströmer.
When they sprint across his pages
I can hear them sing in Swedish.
His words make them joyful
and for a moment they forget
with every page-turn their lives
can be wiped onto the paper
to the silence of a blood clot.
What decides their death
is how long I linger on each poem.
They act goofy on the page,
like commuters wearing lifejackets,
or carrying packed suitcases to a dry country.
All of them are just born, starting new lives
except for the five-week old elders, who lie
listless, face to face, in an endless buffet of eggs.
The bedrooms are located in the spines of the books
where they keep their kitsch, where they ride
on fungi deposits stored away for winter,
play king of karaoke and warm dancing,
kiss each other goodnight on the forehead
and sleep knotted like briars. When retiring
from eating glue and disfiguring pages,
their organs speak in clicks to new words learned.
This close to Tomas Tranströmer they fall
asleep in the pages as in sheets of sugar.
Butcher-White, published in The Waxed Lemon, Issue 5. For more info please go to: https://www.thewaxedlemon.com/
Reading/performance at The Vault, Balbriggan, December 2022, during Reclaiming The Arts.
Photos credit: Simone Bonzano
Photos credit: Simone Bonzano
If you would like to purchase a copy of Anvil Dust please go to: http://www.scotuspress.com
I would like to thank my mentors Martin Drury, Sharon Murphy, Enda Wyley, Niall MacMonagle and Cherry Smyth for their kindness, knowledge, optimism and keen judgement. This collection benefited greatly from their advice and encouragement.
'Reading through this collection there is a movement towards light and life and the closing, exhilarating image is one of release, freedom, movement. It began with an image of father and son, it closes with an image of son and mother that is both beautiful and life enhancing. Art, in the end, is always on the side of life.'
Niall MacMonagle, anthologist, broadcaster and author of poetry text books for students, April 2022
Chasing Shadows, published by Lapwing Press, July 2022, edited by Noel Monahan.
Thomas Brezing and Enda Wyley: In-Conversation Poetry Reading. Production by Books for Breakfast,
Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr 2021. Link to view video with Enda Wyley https://youtu.be/frdrdURWA-I
The poem 'News' was shortlisted for the South Dublin Libraries Poetry Competition 2021, judged by Mark Ward. Here is a link to some of the readings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBNLotwSzYI
Thomas Brezing and Enda Wyley: In-Conversation Poetry Reading. Production by Books for Breakfast,
Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr 2021. Link to view video with Enda Wyley https://youtu.be/frdrdURWA-I
The poem 'News' was shortlisted for the South Dublin Libraries Poetry Competition 2021, judged by Mark Ward. Here is a link to some of the readings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBNLotwSzYI