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JOHN O'DONNELL

John O’Donnell has been published in Ireland, England, America and Australia and has broadcast on RTE and BBC. He won the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award for Poetry and has also won The Ireland Funds Prizes for Poetry in Listowel Writers Week. His first collection, Some Other Country, was published in 2002; in the same year he won the Irish National Poetry Prize. His second collection, Icarus Sees His Father Fly was published by Dedalus Press in 2004. A Senior Counsel living in Dublin, he is a member of the Board of Poetry Ireland.

Jairus

One with him shook his head: "You can't buy this"

although I could see the other two were

keen to haggle, see how much more I’d give,

as if there was some price I would not pay

to bring her back. To see my daughter live.

A swarm around him, pawing at his robes

and he was weary, wheeling with a sigh

“Alright; alright.” Dark room; her husk. Choked sobs

when he pronounced her sleeping, urging her

to rise. The same as all the rest, I thought:

the rhetoric, the empty promises;

I’d wanted to believe, you understand,

as he called for water. The cup lifted

to lifeless lips. And then she touched his hand.  

©2010 John O'Donnell

Author Links

John O'Donnell at Dedalus Press

Audio recording: John O'Donnell reads "Injury Time"

'The Blue Man' (Prize-winning "Poem On The Dart")