April, 1920
Now I must these three praise –
Po’boys, gumbo, crawfish etouffeé.
It’s a long ocean voyage away, indeed,
From mackerel, champ and day old disheen.
They griped in Waco: ‘He’s over our heads.’
Probably so ... Some things best left unsaid.
Americans, on balance, seem an amiable people,
If all about commerce, sports and steeples.
The Crescent City is quite another place.
You’d hardly know you were in the United States.
French, black, Creole, redneck, what have you.
It all makes for good craic down on the bayou.
I was once of the opinion that Maud was red hot
But she never had a quarter of what these gals got.
Georgie’s upstairs with her mystic scribbling.
I’m here in the bar downstairs, reconsidering
The manner in which my life has been spent
Fashioning verses in lieu of merriment.
Perhaps it’s only the 3 sazeracs talking
But give me tuba / drums / cornet over gyre-stalking.
A pity, tomorrow we’ll be on our way
Just when I was ready to laissez les bon temps rouler.
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 116:
A WB Yeats Special Issue
This essential Yeats anniversary publication is edited by Vona Groarke and includes responses to Yeats’s legacy and readings of his poems from public figures as diverse as Bill Whelan, Neil Jordan, Colm Tóibín, Frank McGuinness, Mary Costello and John Banville, along with new poems responding to Yeats’s work by Irish and international poets such as Margaret Atwood, Sharon Olds, Philip Schultz, Sinéad Morrissey and Harry Clifton. The issue also includes Yeats’s poetry collections, reviewed by leading poets as if just published. Now also available in hardback.
"superb special edition" John Boland, Irish Independent
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