Knotwork

 

a knot for the nettles and ditches
   a knot for the ragwort’s scald
a knot for the ghosts at the holy well
   a knot for the missing child

a knot for the bat’s zig-zag flight
   a knot for the swallows’ swerve
a knot for the cows bedding down at night
   a knot for the apple’s curve

a knot for the butchers’ singing knives
   a knot for the sow’s scream
a knot for the hurrying midwives
   a knot for the shoals of bream

a knot for the fisherman’s catch
   a knot for the hungering …

White-tailed Eagles

 

Iolair Mhara

Two eagles lock talons in mid-flight
and tumble together towards the water

    as if they’ll never stop falling,

but they disentangle just in time
and ascend to the top

    of …

January Poetry Curator Emma Must

Poets Are Quite Resilient

Emma Must is a poet living in Belfast. Formerly a full-time environmental campaigner, she was awarded the 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize for Europe for her efforts towards land conservation. She …

LETTER FROM THE COUNTRY

 

My brother
what do I do now

with my impulse
to tie our shoes together

and launch them into the wire
the way I think

you think
sublime vistas are conjured

I prepare a …

Tet Singing Cure (Almost a Ghost)

 

for children and their caretakers during wartime

Co Tu sang   not sleeping
  the lamp lit
one year old toddler me near-death
war attack aftermath with stomach sickness

In Morning

 

The Palestinian child
does not think about being Palestinian,
but only of how his kitten
slept last night
and why is it not
in its basket.
Before he walks to …