Dawn Chorus for the Dead

Alice Kinsella

They rest until the day breaks

And the shadows flee away.

The rooks wake before day breaks

and deliver me their cawing

through the canopy

cloaking Haworth cemetery.

Parsonage windows dark

could be sleeping

church locked overnight

could be sleeping

slip of cobbles under foot

clip clop clip clop

Victorian light black mist

streetlights like fires

catlike I slip through shadows

tip tap slap slap

of my footfalls

close distance

chaos peaceful in the absence

of all earthbound heartbeats

other than my own so tightly

held beneath my tongue

the bells ring welcoming

seven Sunday morning

bing bong bong bing

all houses snooze still

rooks scream their panic

cries of another day –

dawn chorus for the dead –

crescendo, crescendo!

Until the shadows break

And the day flees away

They rest.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 124:

Edited by Eavan Boland

Poetry Ireland Review 124 contains new poems from Paula Meehan, Ciarán O'Rourke, Lizzy Nichols, Mark Ward, Gabriel Rosenstock, Özgecan Kesici, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and many other compelling voices. Also included is Eilean Ni Chuilleanáin's remembrance of her Cork childhood, excerpted from The Vibrant House: Irish Writing and Domestic Space, a book of essays reviewed in issue 124 by Caitríona O'Reilly. Other books considered in this issue include collections from Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Mark Granier, Tara Bergin, The Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets, and the Collected Poems of the late Dennis O'Driscoll, and there's also a short interview with Thomas Kinsella along with an essay on Kinsella as poet and civil servant. Another Kinsella is this issue’s Featured Poet, Alice Kinsella, and all artwork for the issue is supplied by artists associated with the Olivier Cornet Gallery on Great Denmark Street, around the corner from Poetry Ireland.

Available now to purchase online or in all good bookstores.