Hope


Leeuwin Lighthouse, Western Australia The Indian and Southern oceans touch and then follow separate destinies. Humpback whales roll in the water, slapping their fins to send out spray and messages. Seabirds carry nest materials, dropping little pieces on the way as signposts. A magpie lands close by and sings; maybe to my red jumper, maybe… Continue reading Hope

ONE DARKNESS HOLDS THEM ALL


Stingrays are the underwater shadows of the distant beaches of my childhood: gliding abysses with dead eyes and clown mouths below the clear surface and slow gleaming days, passing back and forth all summer long and constantly prowling the sand of my dreams. Species are currents in an ocean of genes – adapting, evolving, disappearing… Continue reading ONE DARKNESS HOLDS THEM ALL

The Gathering


That clump of trees just up ahead is pulsing and boiling with birds, thousands packed tightly together like smoke; a chattering, chirping autumn turbine gathering energy for departure. You can sense the power building, peaking as more and more arrive, bending branches under the weight of their massed impatience. At a silent signal made every… Continue reading The Gathering

INHERITANCE


Under a sky the colour of extinction you choose your own conclusion. The Earth might have already done so: somewhere in its whirling mass of DNA and infinite genetic possibilities is the clue to what will replace us. Perhaps an existing creature will evolve, switching on latent capabilities that have lain dormant for millennia, or… Continue reading INHERITANCE

House Arrest


The spiders in the corners are my guards. They hang from webs, long legs gripping strands, sensing every quiver of my nerves. Somewhere out there are the other rooms where the lives I might have led are locked while the many people I might have been stand in corridors and pound on doors. My spinning… Continue reading House Arrest

EYEWITNESS OF THE INVISIBLE


A homeless moon lingers over the town. I linger with it, both of us bracing for single combat with oblivion at the crossroads where silence is spoken. I was interrogated once again during the night but betrayed only myself. I want to believe in the future and in life’s rosy emptiness, but shadows block my… Continue reading EYEWITNESS OF THE INVISIBLE

Two Irish Poems


Two poems just published in the An Aítiúil anthology. The theme was Ireland, so my poems are about what it means to me to return to live in Ireland generations after my family left. ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY YEARSCarrowbehy Bog A lot has happened in five generations,but nothing can have changed between these hillsthat have… Continue reading Two Irish Poems

Three Poems


THIRD VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS Central India, 1 BC You must have watched so many battlesdawn, Trishanku.And you know what it meansto want too much;I’m hanging upside downbetween the earthI took for grantedand the sky I dreamed of reaching.I’ve never feared the rolling dice of war,but the wheel of lifeis spinning backwards now, Trishanku. Low Tide… Continue reading Three Poems