The Gale Lifts The Roof Off The 90,000 Litre tank

John Kinsella

We hear a whoowoowoo and all-stop – wondering

where it comes from, trees bending to touch

the ground, rain cauterising the house.

It sounds like violence in the fireplace, says Tracy,

as the wind plays havoc with flame, with the reinforced

firebox. I fight the door and step outside to piece

the scene together, and notice a segment of the tank’s tin roof

straining against the gale which will complete its lift

imminently. We are all part of the gale, we all have chunks

of agency ripped away. We are all watched while performing

survival, animate inanimate in all classifications of life.

Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall, and the wind’s hand adds

another category to the five of living things we acknowledge,

though twists a way into all matter, and works down

seven levels, trumpeting a personalised origin of species.

So I climb at a tangent to the tank’s collar as Tracy keeps watch,

and wrestle the tin lid back into the circular, make diameter

snug to the plane, discoid click into circumference, unopening

the can – but likewise I yell into the gale as the porthole-frame

snaps at my wrist. Chaos of lift and warp, shape and pattern, bloody

signing off. The ladder will fall. We will retreat inside. Nurse my wounds.

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.