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Best of Irish Poetry 2010
Editor: Matthew Sweeney

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

Munster Literature Centre

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MARY MADEC

Mary Madec was born and raised in Mayo, Ireland. She has published in Crannóg, West 47, The Cuirt Annual, Poetry Ireland Review, the SHOp, The Sunday Tribune, Southword, Iota, Cyphers, Nth Position, Natural Bridge (University of St Louis, Missouri) and The Stand (University of Leeds, forthcoming); The Fox Chase Review (January 2011, Philadelphia) and in the anthology, Dogs Singing (Salmon Poetry, December 2010). In Spring 2007 she was chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and for the WINDOWS Showcase Readings and Anthology. In 2008 she won the Hennessy XO Award for Emerging Poetry. Her first collection, In Other Words, was published by Salmon Poetry in May 2010. With her husband, Claude Madec she started up a community-writing project, Away with Words, now in its fourth year. This year she was the recipient of an Arts Council grant to work with Cork artist Aideen Barry on a book and DVD, Jessica Casey & Other Works which was showcased at Cúirt 2012 and published by Salmon Poetry.

Primer

I have moved at last into the third person

where I am able to forgive on principle

at a comfortable distance

how you walked away

left me like a dangling infinitive

looking for a sentence

set my ear to the music of words

to integrate the absurd

left me to look for rhythms

to tap out in the darkness

from memories in the present subjunctive

amem, ames, amet

my mnemonic the distant chimneys of a house

in Fr. Angelus Park.

That I, you, he, she, may love,

in a perfect world.

The conditional seems more predictable

though I cannot see all the conditions

that might pertain

or the rules for their use after certain clauses

Even if I know all the rules of the Grammar

I stumble on composing the narrative

hesitate to make the bold interpretation of an unknown world

Gallia est omnis partes tres divisa est

When I get to the Rubicon, I struggle with retrospect

settle on the third person

for space between me and the world

©2012 Mary Madec

Author Links

Mary Madec at Salmon Poetry

More by Madec in Southword Journal

Interview with Madec at Writing.ie