The Unicycle Paradox

By Kenneth Hickey

Refreshingly unconfessional, placed largely in a Europe between unspecified wars, this is a brave attempt to use poetry to describe the current epoch. Like a young John Ashbery, Hickey skirts from slogan to commonplace, from sound bite to cliché, always returning to the unpropitious conditions for authentic experience, be that hysterical, religious, or communal. - Prof. Graham Allen

In poetry, as in other forms of creative thinking one is always on the lookout for the original voice and occasionally one comes across one that is worth celebrating. Kenneth Hickey ploughs his own rich furrow with welcome assuredness. Here, in his first book, he presents us with work that has the feel of being around for a long time. - Gerry Murphy

• Language: English
• Publisher: Limerick Writers Centre
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005578701

Kenneth Hickey

Kenneth Hickey was born in 1975 in Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland. He served in the Irish Naval Service between 1993 and 2000. His poetry and prose has been published in various literary journals in Ireland, the UK and the United States. His writing for theatre has been performed in Ireland, the UK, New York and Paris. He has won the Eamon Keane Full Length Play Award as well as being shortlisted for The PJ O’Connor Award and the Tony Doyle Bursary. His work in film has been screened at the Cork and Foyle Film Festivals. He holds a BA and MA in English Literature both from University College Cork. He still resides in Cork.

Book preview

The Unicycle Paradox

Poems

by

Kenneth Hickey

Copyright © Kenneth Hickey 2021

First published in Ireland by

Revival Press

Limerick, Ireland

Revival Press is the poetry imprint of

The Limerick Writers’ Centre

12 Barrington Street, Limerick, Ireland

www.limerickwriterscentre.com

www.facebook.com/limerickwriterscentre

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the publisher,

except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Book and Cover Design: Lotte Bender

Cover Image: Jack Hickey

Author Photograph: Amy Frahill

E-book Formatting: Máire Baragry

Managing Editor Revival Press: Dominic Taylor

Available as an e-book at www.smashwords.com

Print copy: www.limerickwriterscentre.com

A CIP catalogue number for this publication is available from The British Library

We acknowledge the support of The Limerick Writers’ Centre Community Publishing

Project

For Charles and Alexander Hickey

Contents

The Unicycle Paradox

Trevor on the Mount

Habemus Papam

Midnight

Requiem

Thus Spake Hector

Varna Beach

Pilgrimage

Odysseus Sailing for Troy

Anthony

Russian Blue

Birdsong

At Swim with One Bird

Three Ages of Isolation

No. 16

This Love

Wordless

In The Barren Kingdom

Wild Camping

Memoirs of a Minor Athlete

Sweden

A Little Night Music

Der Fischer

Inishmore

Phoenix Dying

Road to Mostar

Publishing Credits

Note on Revival Press

The Unicycle Paradox

The red blood poppies bloom in June.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.

I

Hair of raven black, claw,

Skin, cold, new silver snow,

Eyes piercing Eventide’s song,

Cat Anna flays to the bone.

Alone he stays the lonesome vigil,

His strength forlorn, faint and freckled,

In solitude watches her emptiness,

Of which the golden angels wept.

They are christened children of shadow,

Fine fortune set amiss,

Peering through perfumed visions,

To vandalise each anniversary,

Bronze for the eighth year,

Or so they used to say.

Does anyone remember?

Our first caller wins a t-shirt.

The future’s ghost so seldom glimpsed,

Cruelly blind to the fate of drowning mariners,

For Jesus was a sailor.

Calmly follows the condemned man,

From gallows post to gate,

Childlike, through forgotten lines,

Forgotten songs, forgotten airs,

See how they run.

She takes his claw with strength unanswered,

An eagle to all lesser birds,

Aquila chrysaetos.

II

And in the desert cactus flowers,

Fed by Heaven’s seldom tear,

Pierced thorns with bold colours screaming,

Bloom for paradise regained.

Never more in Hell than when in Heaven.

There amongst the Tuareg tents,

Settles them to fever bed,

To play away the stilted daydream,

Through every twilight’s dying breath.

Half in that half-light perfection gallops,

Matching stallion’s march for step,

Hoofbeats cracking, breaking white sands,

Waiting on imagined tides.

The salt that would never arrive.

In