Full Description
The essential selected works of Ireland's leading poet, Micheal O'Siadhail
With an illustrious literary career that has spanned over fifty years, renowned poet Micheal O'Siadhail has cemented his place on the international stage. From his debut collection, The Leap Year (1978), to his latest collection, Desire (2023), O'Siadhail captures evolving struggles with love, faith, and humanity. Here, spanning the entirety of his outstanding career, is the essence of his masterful body of work.
The Essential Poems voyages through traditional and innovative poetic forms, investigating love and passion, joy and loss, world-shaping events and personal experiences. O'Siadhail sounds the depths of meaning and evokes wonder, surprise, anguish, and delight. A lyrical meditation on the relationships between humanity and nature, despair and faith, and the richness of courage in the acts of healing completes what proves to be this unforgettable and necessary collection of the inimitable Irish poet.
Contents
Preface
The Leap Year (1978)
Sunflower
Rungs of Time (1980)
Roofing
Belonging (1982)
Senses
Springnight (1985)
In a New York Shoe-Shop
Thank-You Note
The Image Wheel (1990)
Loss
Autumn Report
The Chosen Garden (1990)
Those We Follow
Beginnings
A Presence
An Unfolding
Squall
The Other Voice
Out of the Blue
St. Brigid's Cross
While You Are Talking
Hindsight
A Circle
Hail! Madam Jazz (1992)
Largesse
Between
A Fragile City (1995)
Leisure
Courtesy
Our Double Time (1998)
Matins for You
Our Double Time
The Gossamer Wall (2002)
Summons
To Life!
Haunted
Never
Love Life (2005)
Long Song
Moments
Covenant
Launch
Parkinson's
Gaze
If
Crimson Thread
Globe (2007)
Traces
I've Crossed Famous Rivers
Unbroken
Doggone Blues
Eclipse
Butterfly
Session
Only End
Tongues (2010)
Worlds
Lullaby
Understanding
Potential
Meaning
Partings
Echo
So
One Crimson Thread (2015)
1
42
68
81
102
111
138
139
149
150
The Five Quintets (2018)
Epigraph
Making, Canto 5 ("Abundance"), i (Dante Aligheri)
Making, Canto 5 ("Abundance"), v (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Making, Canto 5 ("Abundance"), extract from ix (George Eliot)
Making, Canto 5 ("Abundance"), xiii (Patrick Kavanagh)
Dealing, Canto 5 ("Open Hand"), extract from iv (Amartya Sen)
Steering, Canto 3 ("Power"), extract from ii (Joseph Stalin)
Steering, Canto 5 ("A Beckoned Dream"), extract from iii
Finding, Canto 4 ("Surprises"), extract
Finding, Canto 5 ("All Dance"), extract
Meaning, Canto 5 ("Burning Bush"), extract from v
Testament (2022)
Psalter (1, 2, 5, 30, 90, 112)
Gospel
The Sower Went Out
Vineyard
Desire (2023)
Epigraph
Pest (1)
Habitat (11, 13)
Behind the Screen (10, 14)
Desiring (2, 21)
Epilogue
