Lazy Bed

Gillian Somerville-Large

When the wind rose again

He threw down his spade

And left the neat rotting harvest.

Sometimes in Boston

He remembered seagulls

Crying about hunger

And the beauty of misery;

Mist-stroked snow-streaked Mweelrea;

Rain in strings over Clare Island

Orange sun sinking among

Lavender and salmon clouds,

Sea changing from ink to pewter

Surf reclaiming waning sand.

Grass quilts his labour,

Preserves felt stripes

Below Tullabawn.

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.