Former Alaskan poet Laureate Tom Sexton’s latest volume of poetry is “Cummiskey Alley.” The collection is named after Lowell’s first Irishman, Hugh Cummiskey, who walked from Boston to Lowell with a group of Irish laborers. Cummiskey and many other Irish labors dug miles of canals in Lowell, and helped birth the nation’s first industrial revolution. The following poems explore the American experiences of immigrants, largely Irish, and their descendants. The book is available from loompress.com or amazon.com Amerikay, 1832, a Letter When your ship sails into Boston Harbor stay with those who are walking to Lowell By road or along the bank of the canal that goes from Charlestown to…

by Bernie Condon Throughout October, Trasna will focus on the Celtic festival of Samhain, better known to Americans as Halloween. The holiday originated in Ireland and celebrates that time of year when the veil between this world and the next grows thin, and life seems more mysterious. This week we feature two poems by Bernie Condon, as well as her grandmother’s tale of the Banshee which inspired “Woodbines and Tall Tales.” The attached video was produced by Will McLellan of The Wood of O, and features Bernie retelling a family ghost story.  Woodbines and Tall Tales My Grandmother smoked a woodbine Every night by the fire. “Tis the only little pleasure I have” She would splutter between puffs. Curled at…

Peter Sirr Throughout October, Trasna will focus on the Celtic festival of Samhain, known better to Americans as Halloween. The holiday originated in Ireland and celebrates that time of year when the veil between this world and the next grows thin, and life seems more mysterious. This week we feature Peter Sirr, a well-known poet, and now podcaster.  He and his wife, poet Enda Wyley, are hosts of the lively program, Books for Breakfast, which airs every Thursday morning and includes a “Toaster Challenge” in which guests present a favorite book in the time it takes to make toast.                   In addition to select readings from his…

by Monica Corish Before a neck injury in 2005 Irish poet Monica Corish spent many years travelling, living and working in Africa. Based now in Co. Leitrim, in her poems here Corish brings the reader from the sublime beauty of a night spent on a mountaintop near Lokichokio in northern Kenya in her poem, “On the western shore of Lake Turkana”, to a meditation on life stages in her poem, “Once I Saw a Lioness”. In the latter poem the narrator leaves behind exotic adventures and appreciates the grace of love, and the beauty of the quotidian, in mid-life.  And finally her poem, “Maeve’s Version”, with accompanying video, grows out of Corish’s fascination with Irish…

by Maeve O’Sullivan If 2020 is the year for armchair travel, Maeve O’Sullivan’s Elsewhere provides readers with an epic trip. Now in its fourth edition, it features haiku, haibun (a mix of prose and haiku), and long-form poetry. The writing captures a solo, around-the-world journey that took place in the fall of 2016 through the summer of 2017. The collection of poetry begins when she is 11, alone on the Dalkey platform peeling an orange. The poems that follow, like this hybrid fruit, are the product of  far-off places. Throughout her travels, whether she’s contemplating the similarity of Ben Bulben to Cerro Baúl; or her mother’s handwriting to her grandfather’s; there is a…

Jean O’Brien This week Trasna is pleased to feature a new poem by Jean O’Brien, “Rupture,” and present two other readings. Jean is an award-winning poet residing in Dublin. She was a founding member of the celebrated Dublin Writers’ Workshop, and has taught in numerous other creative writing programs. She is the author of five books of poetry: The Shadow Keeper (1997); Dangerous Dresser (2005); Lovely Legs (2009); Merman (2012), and her most recent collection, Fish On A Bicycle, New & Selected Poems. Her work explores the personal, historical, and contemporary. Collectively, these poems are a reminder that objects can speak to us in ways deeper than language; that history, no matter how ancient, lives with us still; and that poetry, that most beautiful language, can reveal…

Joe Whelan In today’s Trasna we have three poems by Clonmel writer, storyteller and farmer, Joe Whelan. In the poems below Joe brings the reader full circle, from his Uncle Davie in “My Uncle’s Coat”, and the farm at Harney’s Cross where he spent happy childhood summers, on to the experience of the young, naïve man in “Nally’s Men”, who came to work in construction in New York City in the 1980s. Finally, in “The Sheep Shearers”, we are returned to Harney’s Cross, to the farm now inherited by Joe near the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford and the essential summer task of shearing sheep, one that demands many helping hands and knowledge…

by Mark Roper This month Trasna is featuring writers participating in Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Every year, 22 emerging writers are selected for the program in the areas of literary fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction, and poetry. Each are paired with mentors. Featured this week is poet Mark Roper, who acted as a mentor in the 2019 Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. Here is how he understands his role as a mentor to writers: Mentoring I have worked as a teacher of creative writing for some 30 years. I worked mainly with adult education classes, but I have worked in many different settings, with many different age groups. Indeed my joke was…