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Best of Irish Poetry 2010
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Songs of Earth and Light
Barbara Korun poems translated by Theo Dorgan

Done Dating DJs
by Jennifer Minniti-Shippey
Winner, 2008 Fool for Poetry Competition

Richesses: Francophone Songwriter Poets
Edited and translated by Aidan Hayes

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MÁIGHREAD MÉDBH

Máighréad Medbh was born in Newcastle West, County Limerick, and now lives in Swords, Co. Dublin. Since the publication of her critically-acclaimed first collection, The Making of a Pagan (Belfast: Blackstaff Press) in 1990, she has become widely known as a poet who applies much creative energy to the presentation of her work in performance. She has performed, to consistently good reviews, at a large number of venues in Ireland, Great Britain, the United States, mainland Europe and on the broadcast media. Máighréad's other full collections are: Tenant (Co. Clare: Salmon Publishing 1999); Split (in ¡Divas! , Galway: Arlen House 2003); When the Air Inhales You (Galway: Arlen House 2008); and Twelve Beds for the Dreamer (Galway: Arlen House 2010). A CD was produced in 2002, and her work has been included in a wide range of anthologies. A revised edition of The Making of a Pagan, with seventeen new poems, is due out soon from Arlen House.  

Dissociate

You’re a social man, warm, intelligent, composed,

          jitters when she would walk in all uptight

Bent on a career in IT management and getting married.

          with the look that meant, oh help, it was all

You know how to fly. That moment when the helicopter

          the down colours again because he was drinking

Can be moved by just a thought thrills your core.

          and she couldn’t just move on. you craved her smile,

But you’re shelving that because, after all, in ‘this climate’

          just that slice of sweetness, and the feminine colours

You’ll have to save. So you’re giving up your apartment

          unhangered. her laugh too, when she played with you,

And moving in with that wonderful girl who’s so together

          her shoulder by yours for your favourite shows,

And doesn’t want the lavish wedding that’s almost de rigueur.

          even if nothing went in.

You enjoy films, eating out and good music of all kinds.

          and flying, which you think of every other moment,

When your friends need you you’re there. You’re wise,

          because only then is this odd drumming in the chest

Don’t get phased by petty problems. Yes, your boss is

          stilled. in dreams you leave your body and scoot

Somewhat rude, but you absorb his boorish ways,

          unvesselled off to stunning landscapes, zestfully,

Carry on. Your purposes can be served without a row.

          an eagle or albatross or captain of a stealth mission.

Purposes and service keep you in that one-track roll 

come morning, as if the sun were one big dad’s-eye,

You like so much. Because life, primarily, must be steered 

clamps bite your muscles. you breathe in ten times

Around the rapids, those shameful bursts of sheer blind rage.

          deeply and try to think Zen.

©2012 Máighréad Medbh

Author Links

Máighréad Medbh home page

TallGirlShorts interview with Medbh

Review of Twelve Beds for the Dreamer in Southword Journal