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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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SIGITAS PARULSKIS

Born 1965, Sigitas Parulskis is one of the most interesting, and certainly the most popular, young poets writing in Lithuania today. Born in the village of Obeliai, Parulskis has published three collections of poetry, three plays, a children's book, numerous essays and critical reviews. He is the editor of the literary section of Lithuania's most popular daily Lietuvos Rytas. Much of Parulskis's material draws from his childhood in rural Lithuania, his experiences as a conscript in the Soviet army, and an archetypal relationship with 'the father'. Southword Editions published his book of poems,The Towers Turn Red, translated by Liz O'Donoghue, in 2005.

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MATTHEW SWEENEY'S most recent collection of poems is Black Moon (Cape, 2007), and prior to that, Sanctuary (Cape, 2004), Selected Poems (Cape, 2002) and several earlier books of poetry. Bilingual poetry selections came out in Germany and Holland in 2008. Earlier translations appeared in Mexico, Romania, Latvia and Slovakia.

SHOEBURNING

by Sigitas Parulskis, translated by Matthew Sweeney

lighting the bonfire I remember
my son trying on my shoes
as if trying me on

shoes are a lodging, a home for the feet
the lost son’s shelter
in which lived time resides

each time we celebrate new shoes
we hope we’ll get farther than they promise

my son wears my shoes
I don’t know, still can’t ascertain
if a part of me has returned to the house of shoes
or if a part is gone already, and which part would be better,
and how many shoes I’ll be given, and how many homes
I’ll never live in

I look at the flames
which spirit away my dead father’s shoes
that he’ll live in forever

©2009 Sigitas Parulskis

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Author Links

Sigitas Parulskis at Poetry International Web

Buy The Towers Turn Red

Matthew Sweeney home page

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