We are very sorry to hear of the passing of poet Paul Durcan. Below a picture when he was our guest at the Cusile Poetry Festival in 2003.

Poet John Liddy asked us to publish his poem ‘Paul Durcan Contemplates’ in tribute to Paul.

PAUL DURCAN CONTEMPLATES

The street view allowed the archeologist in you

to trace the masonry and an imposing stone cross

in the west window above three steps designed

for easy footfall from footpath to entrance

 

Where part of a lintel, on your right, dated 1633,

would have coaxed you inside to ponder a painting

by Timothy Collopy from the lane-sites of chapels

founded on Fish and Creagh after the suppression

 

Of the monastery in Adare. But I suspect

you were in a hurry home to sharpen your knife

for the polishing touches to a near-finished poem –

Bishop of Cork Murders His wife.

 

Outside this church of two towers, one lost

in the plans, I left you to your interior angle.

When I looked again, you were gone in the time

it takes to trap a thought, to light a simple candle.

 

(from Madrid and Other Poems, Revival press, 2018)