Bank

Tom French

There was a rhythm to the cut and catch.

He cut. You looked. He swung. It flew. You caught.

He cut. You looked. He swung. It flew. You caught –

a form of talk that obviated talk.

Work made all speech useless, so the silence

passed between us and entered into us

and became, with each spit, one spit deeper,

a ghost bank growing on the spreading ground.

When it came to it in the funeral parlour,

unsure as yet our job of work was done,

I could not keep my two eyes off of him,

and kept, from habit, a sleán’s length from him,

not to be caught on the end of his swing,

in case he had one last good swing in him.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 121:

Edited by Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland's first issue as editor of Poetry Ireland Review aims to encourage a conversation about poetry which is 'noisy and fractious certainly ... but a conversation nevertheless that can be thrilling in its reach and commitment'. There are new poems from Thomas McCarthy, Jean Bleakney, Wendy Holborow, Paul Perry, Aifric Mac Aodha, and many others, while the issue also includes work from Brigit Pegeen Kelly, with an accompanying essay on the poet by Eavan Boland. Eavan Boland also offers an introduction to the work of poet Solmaz Sharif, while there are reviews of the latest books from Simon Armitage, Peter Sirr, Lo Kwa Mei-en, and Vona Groarke, among others. PIR 121 also includes Theo Dorgan's elegiac tribute to his friend John Montague – a canonical poet, in contrast to the emerging poets Susannah Dickey, Conor Cleary and Majella Kelly, who contribute new work and will also read for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series as part of ILFD 2017.