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Art Ó Suilleabháin’s poems combine a sophisticated wit, rare emotional honesty, and a lyricism which has its roots in the Irish language, of which he is a native speaker. The poems in this book will startle and soothe the reader in almost equal measure. They are rooted in tradition but the voice in which they speak is gloriously twenty first century.– (Kevin Higgins)
Art Ó Súilleabháin was born and reared in Corr na Móna and Boston and worked in various locations around Ireland and the USA. He has published a number of poetry books in Irish for children. He is now settled permanently in Corr na Móna, Connemara, Ireland. He spends his time writing, fishing, woodturning, reading and walking.
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The poem ‘Looking into the Distance,’ opens with the line by George Moore: ‘there is a lake in every man’s heart’. It is the perfect epigraph for this collection. ‘Mayflies in the Heather’ is deeply rooted in the local, fluent in the language of Lough Corrib. Art Ó Súilleabháin is the cartographer as he maps his own area, illuminating every wing-picked insect, every curlew flight, reed and stone, replete with the lore of places.
Like the reeling in of a fish, Art draws the reader into his keenly observed world with each well-tuned, musical line, as in the poem ‘Musician of the Lake’ where his father ‘made it sing perfect notes/tunes of casting.’
The presence of the poet’s father is never far away, and his craftmanship embodies many of these finely wrought poems. In ‘Leaving the Boathouse Empty’ the poet writes ‘that hands have made functional things of such grace.’ Revealing his subject matter with a rich, accomplished hand, whether it is gathering nails or cutting back rhododendron, Art demonstrates his own craftsmanship, and this collection brings grace to such functional things.
Geraldine Mills – Author of Bone Road