dublinka

Terry McDonagh has made available two collections of his verse at this link. A song for Joanna if full of stepping stone poetry; verse where perspectives on different countries obtained from international travel, form a backdrop to more intimate sentiments. This kind of poetry is increasingly common, but at times a certain dislocation seems to occur, whereby in some countries the poet's eye is distracted by novelties and cliché, which in his own country he would probably dismiss. This can lead to good and bad composition - the judgment is personal; driven mostly by the readers own sense of what constitutes a hackneyed or insightful observation. There is no doubting the quality of Australia From My Distance though. It's a beautiful snapshot meditation on Austrailia's elemental rules for those who wish to live with her.

This is not the home of Oedipus
or Lear
– no one’s there to kill them.
They would have passed away
in the scoffing sun and on the
Dreaming paths of the patient earth.