Horizons
– for Zoë
The canary had been dead as a dodo this past while,
But somehow, as we groped around in terror in the darkness,
Our hands chanced upon the airlock’s wheel
And turned it.
When our heads broke the surface luck was with us:
A white plastic nut swam among the wreckage
And bloomed – yellow like a water lily –
Into a life raft.
Huge bubbles belch from the depths
With the collapse of each bulkhead:
Pay it no mind – we are no longer in that place –
But raise your head.
Though our provisions will not last long
And who knows what weather front approaches,
Are these waves not beautiful,
This sky?
Translation by: Simon Ó Faoláin
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 119:
Poetry Ireland Review Issue 119 includes new poems by 48 poets including Frank Ormsby, John Kinsella, Rachel Coventry, Aifric Mac Aodha, Gerald Dawe, Alice Miller and Claire Potter. Also included are translations by Richard Begbie and Kirsten Lodge, an essay on Bishop, Lowell, Heaney and Grennan by David McLoghlin, and reviews of Paul Muldoon, Paul Durcan, Sarah Clancy, Medbh McGuckian, Kate Tempest, George the Poet, and many more. The issue also features photography by Hugh O'Conor, Dominic Turner, Sheila McSweeney, Fergus Bourke and John Minihan.