The Darkness of Snow

By Frank Ormsby

The Darkness of Snow is Frank Ormsby's most varied and versatile collection to date. It includes three substantial sets of poems whose themes are refreshingly and sometimes painfully new. One is a suite of poems – sombre, good-humoured, flippant – about the early stages of Parkinson's Disease. Ormsby was diagnosed as having the disease in 2011. Another was prompted by the work of Irish painters in Normandy, Brittany and Belgium at the end of the 19th century. There are also further explorations of his boyhood years in Fermanagh, while poems set in Belfast reflect the aftermath of the Troubles and celebrate the city's current phase of recovery and restoration. The book ends with a narrative poem about the trial of an unnamed tyrant in which we learn about the Accused (as he is called), about the villagers who have travelled to bear witness to the atrocities carried out in the village, and about one of the interpreters, who understands the slipperiness of Truth. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: Sep 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780373676

Book preview

FRANK ORMSBY

THE DARKNESS OF SNOW

Poetry Book Society Recommendation

The Darkness of Snow is Frank Ormsby’s most varied and versatile collection to date. It includes three substantial sets of poems whose themes are refreshingly and sometimes painfully new. One is a suite of poems – sombre, good-humoured, flippant – about the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease. Ormsby was diagnosed as having the disease in 2011. Another was prompted by the work of Irish painters in Normandy, Brittany and Belgium at the end of the 19th century.

There are also further explorations of his boyhood years in Fermanagh, while poems set in Belfast reflect the aftermath of the Troubles and celebrate the city’s current phase of recovery and restoration. The book ends with a narrative poem about the trial of an unnamed tyrant in which we learn about the Accused (as he is called), about the villagers who have travelled to bear witness to the atrocities carried out in the village, and about one of the interpreters, who understands the slipperiness of Truth.

‘Frank Ormsby belongs to that extraordinary generation of Northern Irish poets which includes Ciaran Carson, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon and Tom Paulin. He is a poet of the truest measure… From his earliest work Ormsby has favoured a natural shapeliness. The critic Eve Patten praises his defiant attachment to economy of form… A plain-speaking, down-to-earth utterance may be the norm, but it teeters on the verge of taking flight, and sometimes gives way to an exquisitely refined lyricism.’ –

MICHAEL LONGLEY

COVER PAINTING

It Could Be Anywhere (2008) by Adrian Ghenie

OIL AND ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 81 x 120cm

COURTESY / COPYRIGHT © ADRIAN GHENIE

FRANK ORMSBY

The Darkness

of Snow

For

Michael Longley

whose book this also is

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements are due to the editors of the following publications in which some of these poems first appeared: The Cincinnati Review, Devenish Townlands: Hectares of History and Heritage, ed. Mary Maguire & Mary Doris (Devenish Heritage Association, 2016), Hwaet! 20 Years of Ledbury Poetry Festival, ed. Mark Fisher (Bloodaxe Books, 2016), Irish Pages, New Hibernia Review, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and Salamander.

The Parkinson’s Poems was published as a pamphlet collection, The Parkinson’s Poems, by Mariscat Press in 2016. I am indebted to Dr Kath MacDonald from the Division of Nursing, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh who has used the Parkinson’s poems as a teaching aid for both staff and students and has based a number of poetry session workshops on them.

A number of the poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Northern Ireland.

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I

Altar Boy

Altar Boy Economics

1959–1960

The Cash Railway

The National Anthem

The Fields

Neddy

Snow on the Way

The Fox

Owls

Do You Renounce?

Inoculation

The Gang

Diversion

Omagh

Rhododendrons

Ruts

Unapproved Roads

Storms

Loss of Sound

The Woodpile

Snowdrop

Landscape with Endangered Species

Unfinished Music

Towards a Sketch of My Mother

After a Storm

A Zen Dream of Fermanagh

My Father Again

The Farmyard Haiku

II

The Fisherman

The Black Duckling

The Waterworks Park

Crows Again

At the Graveside

My Last Words

Purgatory

Gunslingers

For Ciaran Carson

Lunch in The Crown with Michael Longley

An Evening in The John Hewitt with Conor Macauley

Visiting the Grave

Grandfather’s Week

Small World (3)

The Snail

The Soul

The Cult

Outside The Walls

After Edward Hopper: Sun in an Empty Room

No Telling

Belfast Needs Fountains

III   TWENTY-SIX IRISH PAINTINGS

1 Aloysius O’Kelly: The Christening Party

2 John Lavery: Under the Cherry Tree

3 Walter Osborne: Apple Gathering, Quimperlé

4 Stanley Royle: The Goose Girl

5 Norman Garstin: Among the Pots

6 Norman Garstin: Madonna Lilies

7 Joseph Malachy Kavanagh: Pursuing His Gentle Calling

8 Richard Thomas Moynan: Girls Reading a Newspaper

9 Walter Osborne: Breton Girl by a River

10 Roderic O’Conor: Portrait of a Young Woman Smiling

11 May Guinness: Pump at Pont-l’Abbé

12 Nathaniel Hone: Feeding Pigeons, Barbizon

13 Stanhope Forbes: Miss Ormsby, Later Mrs Homan

14 Frank O’Meara: Towards Night and Winter

15 William John Leech: Convent Garden, Brittany

16 Mary Swanzy: The Clown by Candlelight

17 Frank O’Meara: On the Quays, Étaples

18 Henry Jones Thaddeus: The Wounded Poacher

19 Frank O’Meara: The Widow

20 Augustus Nicholas Burke: Farmyard in Brittany

21 William John Leech: Interior of a Barber’s Shop

22 Stanhope Forbes: Street in Brittany

23 Norman Garstin: Estaminet in Belgium

24 Richard Thomas Moynan: The Laundress

25 Nathaniel Hone: Old Woman