Hypermetropia

Iggy McGovern

Apocryphal, no doubt, the story of

the Dublin Tommy who had lost an eye

for King & Country during The Great War.

When invalided back home he refused

to leave the house until he was supplied

with a glass eye, but one that would pass muster.

The first he judged the iris was too large,

the next too small, another the wrong shade

of blue, and so on; it was many years

before he finally emerged to find

The Second City now in rebel hands

and all the garrison decamped; that eye

might also have gone back with this direction:

‘Request adjustment of far-sight correction’.

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.