The Nowhere Birds is O'Reilly's début collection of poetry and is very impressive. Since I have a small pint glass of daffodils on my desk right now, I'm going to reproduce her poem from this collection called 'Daffodils', which I think will give you a sense of these sensual, and unsettling, poems:
They bring this hint of something startled in them -
the dreadful earliness of their petals
against dead earth, the extremity of their faces
suggesting a violent start -
dumb skulls opening, overnight, to vehemence.
Their lives are quicker than vision,
their voices evade us. And as
water tightens its surface in vases
and sharpens its glass, slicing their sticks
in half, these funnels clatter on their bent necks,
like bells for the already dead.
8 comments:
Are they all so cheery?
Oh you're funny. Careful now considering where she did her doctorate!
she's a gloomy old bird herself. ever met her?
No I haven't actually. That's terrible!! Poor thing, trying to be a serious poet and all these people around her pulling the piss!
No she isn't a gloomy person, that's not true at all. She is warm, friendly, funny as well as very attractive, and no I am not her!
Thanks Crippen for the comment. I'm sure she's lovely, don't mind that anonymous post.
amazing poet. one of my favorite poems in this collection is 'Thin' oh and 'ninety eighty four' is powerful too.
i was only introduced to caitriona o reilly's poetry in a lecture earlier today and i love it already! her poetry has the same affect as plath's or dickenson's and leaves you dying to read more!
people today just aren't content unless they're being entertained!
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