This Is What You Mean To Me: Poetry Ireland Introductions 2021

This Is

What You Mean To Me: Poetry Ireland Introductions 2021 is an anthology of

poetry from Poetry Ireland, the national poetry organisation. This anthology

features the very best of Ireland's emerging poets for 2021, as chosen by

Seán Hewitt, award-winning poet, reviewer, and author of the upcoming memoir,

All Down Darkness Wide. Along with a pair of superb poems, each poet provides

an insightful prose piece on poetry, on life, on the overlap between poetry

and life. Featuring William Keohane, Molly Twomey, Simon Costello, Jamie

Field, Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, Eoin McEvoy, Laura McKenna, Sacha White,

Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill, and Sonya Gildea, along with author photos, plus a

superb cover image from artist Colin Martin. Quality poems and quality prose

from Poetry Ireland: connecting poetry and people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poetry Ireland
• Release date: Nov 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781902121871

Book preview

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Poetry Ireland Introductions aims to encourage excellence in the craft of poetry by raising the profile of talented, emerging poets.

The series offers poets in the early stages of their careers, writing in Irish or English, the opportunity to showcase their work through workshops and performance. The poets selected for the Introductions series participate in a workshop focused on poetic form and craft, as well as a masterclass on the art of reading and performing poetry in public, and a presentation on marketing and self-promotion for poets.

These workshops culminate in a series of public readings.

www.poetryireland.ie/writers/introductions-series

This sampler of work from the poets who read for the

Poetry Ireland Introductions series in 2021 is published by

Poetry Ireland CLG / Éigse Éireann CTR,

with the assistance of

The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon

and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Introductions Readings Co-ordinator: Elizabeth Mohen

Publication Co-ordinators: Paul Lenehan and Eoin Rogers,

with the assistance of Veronika Kolodžejová.

Cover image: Neural Lace (2018), by Colin Martin,

Instagram: @colinmartin81

ISBN: 978-1-902121-87-1

CONTENTS

Introduction

Poetry Ireland Introductions is a prestigious and wonderful programme, and as this year’s selector, I felt the weighty responsibility of having to choose a small number of poets from a wealth of submissions. Across the board, it is clear that the pulse of Irish poetry is very much beating. Reading the submitted work, and working with the chosen poets at Poetry Ireland, I had the rare and privileged sense of being able to look into the future. Each poet chosen for this year’s programme has a distinctive voice and a formal skill, and it’s my pleasure to introduce you to them here.

We begin with the deliberate, vulnerable, quietly radical poems of William Keohane, their slow ‘blooming / of gold’, a phrase which captures the alchemical way his forms transfigure language into a precious and illuminating substance. Then, we move on to the unafraid, dazzlingly alive lines of Molly Twomey’s work, where the reader feels themselves touching the world anew: ‘My wrists were so green, thorns wrote eulogies / for each other on my skin.’

Simon Costello’s poems are playful, even kaleidoscopic. His ekphrastic sequence ‘Wire and Not Ribbons’ is at once controlled and energetic, charting a head ‘brimming with white sparks and thunder’, like