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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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ELEANOR HOOKER

Eleanor Hooker lives in North Tipperary. Her debut collection of poems The Shadow Owner’s Companion, published by The Dedalus Press in 2012, has recently been shortlisted for the Strong/Shine award for best first collection in 2012. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, The SHOp, Crannog, Can Can, Agenda, POEM: International English Language Quarterly, New Leaf, and in the anthology I Live In Michael Hartnett. Online her poetry has been published in Wordlegs, And Other Poems, and is forthcoming in Ink Sweat and Tears and Poethead. She is the Vice-Chairperson of the Dromineer Literary Festival. She is Helm and Press Officer for Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat.

Photo © George Hooker

Pearls

 

 

Silence cannot own this room,

if a clock beats, keeps, and loses time,

if you tick-tock clues to the empty moon

and gather pearls strung for rhyme,

 

for a clock that beats, keeps, and loses time.

And hemming light, like beads of noiseless white,

you gather pearls strung for rhyme

as moon-cut gifts to the saddened night.

 

And hemming light, like beads of noiseless white,

the room grows bright with faces telling tales—

moon-cut ghosts that raise the saddened night,

that pass before you in their morning veils.

 

This room grows bright with faces telling tales,

as they tick-tock clues from the empty moon.

Who passed before me in their mourning veil?

Silence cannot own this room.

 

 

©2013 Eleanor Hooker

Author Links

The Shadow Owner's Companion at Dedalus Press

Two poems by Eleanor Hooker at And Other Poems

Nuala Ní Chonchúir interviews Eleanor Hooker at Women Rule Writer