Caducity

Kenneth Fields

Across the quad I see them coming, pairs,

Singles, groups, old men

Leaving a memorial service for a teacher

Older than me.

Some are with canes, some walkers. Wispy white

Hair thins in a breeze that blows one

Off his stride, a feather. Overhead

The air rumbles,

Machines designed, like everything, to drop –

The compassionate heart encased

In carbon fibre, wired

For complete destruction.

The ground trembles. These old men,

Veterans, some of them,

Of wars six worlds down, speak to each other,

Grateful, as I am, for any day.

If I saluted, someone would return it. Today

We hold these arcades. Palms and bays

And loquats, wanderers out of China, shade us

All equally.

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.