Friday 13 May 2011

AUSTRALIAN POET LAUNCHES IN SLIGO


Australian poet Libby Hart is having an Irish book launch for her second poetry collection, This Floating World. It will be launched by Dermot Healy at Ellen’s Pub in Maugherow, Co. Sligo, on Friday 20th May from 7.00pm.

Dermot Healy says, "Libby Hart’s poetry hums with the music of nature – from 'the gossip of water', 'that whistle-soaked air', to 'the lipsound of stones'. She is on a rare march through Ireland and captures it with stunning verse. Love beats from page to page. A great collection of sights and sounds, right down to the 'smallest creak of wings'."

Here’s a sample poem from the collection:

Woman drawing the curtains of her bedroom
          – Carrick-on-Shannon

My thoughts are with you tonight,
they belong where your feet walk.

They go down to the river
its bend, the curve of serpent
slunk beneath.

Body of water,
a wetness, sucking. A splash, a drop.
Her belly swollen and swallowing,
sinking down with a swish of tail.

Blubbing and lugging
this weighted island-world,
a push of girth
netting our own wet bodies
of muscle and tide,
the heart-thump of land
unanchored below feet.

This island of the ocean,
how it sways us to sleep
with its breath of undertow,
its guardians of storm above our heads.

Their hint of speech falls on sodden ground,
near-words reach me.

I wish her all the best of luck while she is here and with the book. Libby's blog is here.

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