One Cognizance

John W. Sexton

The sedge crowding against the husk

of a rusting motor car has no dream

in its thin many-heads. The car has

no dream either, nor memory. A beetle

skirting the edge of a puddle has the only

cognizance of dream, its pure mind

as smooth as its carapace. In an intake of breath

the beetle is crunched in the mouth of a fox.

The fox steps freely under starlight, the dream

in its mind too, the dream in its mind wide awake.

The stars seep into night, an ichor called starlight.

Starlight penetrates everything, penetrates the dark.

The dark soaks the starlight into itself, draws it in.

The dark soaks in everything, everything penetrates it.

The sedge in its thin many-headed thoughts of nothing

is imbued by every tread of beetle, fox, weasel, mouse,

swift shadows of owls; everything is touched by

and touches everything else. There is one dream,

one sleep, one cognizance wet in the ichor of starlight.

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.