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The local what's on Newspaper for South Galway and North Clare, covering Oranmore, Clarinbridge, Kilcolgan, Laban, Ardrahan, Gort, Kinvara, Bellharbour, Ballyvaughan, Fanore, Craughwell & Loughrea.
Not all of the poems are of equal strength but the eclectic mix shown here allows for that 'don't fence me in' sense to prevail through the rage-rage poems by Trish Casey as well as the sensual and clever poems by Maureen Gallagher. Betsy Carreyette will do her damnedest to make a better life for those four chirping daughters, while Susan Millar duMars will not rush sadness, but instead make language do its poignant job of revealing and evoking strong feelings of what happens when someone we know and love is no longer with us. Her style of retelling is unique, she doesn't mince her words, she spares them and makes them work. Pat Jordan embraces a wider social scoop. Her characters ramble off to annoy 'the equal opportunities board'. She mingles with 'the friends of Icarus who fell off centre' in her poem 'Mayakovsky Roams Knocknacarra'. She tells us that 'land-grab machines mulch and overturn'. In 'His Strategy' her accountant 'red-ruled chaos into place'. If Pat Jordan warns, then Caoilinn Hughes weaves. She weaves an exactness that makes you pay more attention to the sound, the music, and the song she puts before you. She has a remarkably mature way of seeing for someone so young. The six different voices in this anthology never slump on energy and vision. Their commitment is to language and its flexibility. Their celebration and protest is as individual as each poem contained here. The quality of the voices adds to that intriguing journey of difference that makes you want more from all six. Rita Ann Higgins April 2004 |
