An aerial view of Gola
I have only seen Gola from the mainland. Hasn’t stopped me blogging about it (or more specifically a book about it) From the air, the island extends a lot further…
Category: water
“The Sonnet Is Dead”, a sonnet by Joanna Cleary
From the Summer 2018 issue of Temz Review here is a sonnet (of course) by Joanna Cleary. I like its ironic treatment of contemporary lit crit certainties. And of course,…
David Monacchi: “Fragments of Extinction”, the sounds of vanishing nature
With the prospect of mass extinction in the news, it seems a good time to reflect on the loss of soundscapes. In Ireland, the corncrake and the curlew were once…
#AprilCountry, April 27th, “Cool Water”, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash, in the last years of his career, made a series of albums which mixed new compositions, country standards, and versions of contemporary songs from unexpected genres, such as…
The Birds of Castle Espie
I haved blogged before about WWT Castle Espie, Co. Down. Another visit over Easter re-confirmed just how wonderful a place it is for a family day out. It is also…
“The tide rises, the tide falls, / The twilight darkens, the curlew calls”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a poet whose stellar reputation of the late 19th and early 20th Century is rather in eclipse, to say the least. No doubt his star will…
“Curlews Lift”, Ted Hughes
Curlews Lift Out of the maternal watery blue lines Stripped of all but their cry Some twists of near-edible sinew They slough off The robes of bilberry blue The cloud-stained…
#AprilCountry April 11th, Fallin’ Rain, Karl Blau
A while back I posted a group of rain songs – featuring Sinatra, The Go-Betweens and Linda Perhacs. If I had known about it at the time, I would have…
Séamus Sweeney 