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ONLINE BOOKSTORE FEATURED TITLES

Best of Irish Poetry 2010
Editor: Matthew Sweeney

Songs of Earth and Light
Barbara Korun poems translated by Theo Dorgan

Done Dating DJs
by Jennifer Minniti-Shippey
Winner, 2008 Fool for Poetry Competition

Richesses: Francophone Songwriter Poets
Edited and translated by Aidan Hayes

Munster Literature Centre

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IGGY McGOVERN

Iggy McGovern was born in Coleraine and lives in Dublin, where he is Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College. His poems have appeared in both journal and anthology formats, as well as in the 'Poetry In Motion' series on DART trains. Awards include the McCrea Literary Award, the Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. A first collection, The King of Suburbia, published by Dedalus Press in 2005, received the inaugural Glen Dimplex New Writers Award for Poetry in 2006.

The Irish Poem is

a Taín Bó, a Spring Show, a video
a trodden dream, a parish team, a tax-break scheme
a prison cell, an Angelus bell, a clientele
a brinded cow, a marriage vow, a domestic row
a tattered coat, a puck goat, a telly remote
a game of tig, a slip jig, a U2 gig
a restored tower, a Holy Hour, a pressure shower
a ticking clock, a summer frock, a shock-jock
a hazel wand, a dipping pond, a page 3 blonde
a canal bank, a returned Yank, a septic tank
a green flag, a Child of Prague, a Prada bag
a whispering sea, a Rose of Tralee, a transfer fee
a disused shed, a settle bed, a Club Med
a long strand, a céilí band, a one night stand
a ‘barbaric yawp’, a sweet shop, an alcopop
a flax dam, a high pram, an email spam
a new estate, a blind date, a security gate
a pint of plain, a lover’s lane, a place in Spain
a cold eye, a bittern cry, a heroin high
a Raglan Road, a tractor load, a Da Vinci code
a lake isle, a wooden stile, a paedophile
a night feed, a Rosary bead, a corporate greed
a lonely impulse, a bag of dulse, a fading pulse
a herring shoal, a fox stole, a death toll
a Pangur Bán, a paraffin can, a fake tan
a fire-king, a fairy ring, a bling-bling
a tickled trout, a boy scout, a ticket tout
a wild swan, a frogspawn, a roll out lawn
a lost tribe, a D’Olier Street scribe, a planning bribe
a huge rose, a garden of repose, a wine nose
a hedgehog, a peat bog, a weblog
a whirlpool, a milking stool, a drug mule
a stony grey soil, a three-in-one oil, a Mrs Doyle
a planter’s daughter, a school jotter, a mineral water
a potato pit, a banana-split, a gangland hit
a deep heart’s core, a Georgian door, a quick score
a newborn lamb, a radiogram, an internet scam
a village master, a sticking plaster, a ghetto blaster
a third light, a second sight, a bungalow blight
a solitary enzyme, a closing time, an end rhyme.

©2009 Iggy McGovern

Author Links

Iggy McGovern blog

Video of McGovern reading 'King of Suburbia'

McGovern at Dedalus Press

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