Omagh
‘You’ll land me in Omagh,’
my mother groans,
at her wit’s end.
Omagh is where the birdies are.
The out-of-mind drift
out of sight a while,
then back among us.
It is said that madness
runs in families.
We mooch around our gate
and think of it travelling at speed
in the shape of Miss Carty,
who, home again,
has joined the Dippers
and cycles the main road
in suspenders and knickers.
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.