London & Oxford Launches Micheal O’Siadhail’s Collected Poems

Collected Poems is a substantial retrospective covering almost 40 years of work. It draws on thirteen books of poetry by Micheal O’Siadhail, and includes a CD of him reading a selection of the poems.

In his foreword, Micheal O’Siadhail writes about the individual books that make up his Collected, drawing out common themes and relating the books to the various stages in his life at which they were written.
“Collected poems are a kind of retrospective symphony. There was no grand plan. Different phases of growth, the various exigencies in the theatre of living call up the movements.” - Micheal O’Siadhail, Foreword to his Collected Poem.
 
Micheal O’Siadhail is one of Ireland’s leading poets. Formerly a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin and a professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, he has been a full-time writer since 1987. He has published thirteen books of poetry, the last nine from Bloodaxe, including Hail! Madam Jazz: New and Selected Poems (1992), Our Double Time (1998), Poems 1975-1995 (1999), The Gossamer Wall: poems in witness to the Holocaust (2002), Love Life (2005), Globe (2007) and Tongues (2010). He won the Marten Toonder Prize for Literature in 1998. He has given poetry readings and broadcast extensively in Ireland, Britain, continental Europe, North America and Japan. He lives in Dublin.

Collected Poems by Micheal O’Siadhail is published by Bloodaxe Books, price £20 (paper) and £30 (cased). With free audio CD of poems read by Micheal O'Siadhail.

For further information on Micheal O’Siadhail, please visit http://osiadhail.com/

Featured Poem for July 2013 - 'Photograph' by Roger Stevens

"Photograph" by Roger Stevens

(From Roger's forthcoming book called "What Are We Fighting For" (Macmillan) with Brian Moses - a book of poems about WWI and WWII.)

Here’s the photo I took
Last year on the beach
Dad, wearing the tie
I bought him for his birthday
Billy drinking lemonade
The straw up his nose
And Mum, huddled up in her coat
Against the seaside wind

Now Dad’s in France
And our beach is covered in concrete
And tangled barbed wire
And land mines
In case the Germans invade

But on that day
We’d just made
The world’s grandest sandcastle
And watched the tide
Rush in
Filling the moat
Gradually washing
The sandcastle away

© Roger Stevens 2013
Please do not use without the poet’s permission.

For further information about Roger Stevens and his work please visit Roger's page here.

Roger's new poetry collection for children 'Off By Heart' has just been published by A & C Black (Bloomsbury). Read our review here and click on the book's cover for further info and to order a copy.