Below is an extract from my long poem 'abstraction written in response...'

Another shorter poem, Callisto, can be read here.

I also write poetry in English. In 2023 I was commissioned in spring 2023 I was commissioned by Poetry as Commemoration to collaborate with students from the Blue Teapot Performing Arts School to create poetry based on their engagement with the Galway City Museum exhibits on the War of Independence and the Civil War. The poems and an audio recording of my performance of them were then added to the Poetry as Commemoration collection in UCD Special Collections.

Extract from 'abstraction written in response...'

Robert Letham, great grandfather. Died France 1917.

eddies boarn fae virr n violence
hidden oan thi ocean’s flair
thrust mi upwards noo past
lang lines o streetchin shadaes
thi mere images n ideas
o wummin men n bairns
lik woondit ribbons rippling
intae a focus a black n grey
then vanishin forever back
intae thi cauld sea’s belly

there thi island bhoys ur dancin
hail limbed again in uniforms braw
sparklin in a galaxy o plankton
yin n aw steppin oot in perfect time

yit ben thi glaur n lime o france
thur fine young faces wur left ahin
n lollin atop thur boadies’ ilka hop n prance
thur bonny skulls gae rollin
lik crackt urns spillin
barbed thorns n razor wire entwinin
roon strips o peellywally skin

then roon mi swirlin n jiggin stuhll
each squaddie passin gies a bow
n tries ti bless mi wae a kiss
n ah haudin ma hauns tae ma pleadin lips
ache fur thi rip o steel thi rip o wid
but thi ocean’s fingurs tak a grip
a ma hair n hurl mi upwards
n oan tae dry land

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