omeros is unforgiveable they come and they go fleeting wet bullets my bed has left me for another bed the world has lost eternity clocks are now winding towards a new paternity i wait within the ward of maternity for mother to give birth to me so that the idea of him will return https://soundcloud.com/cassandra-voices/omeros-is-unforgiveable-by-brendan-mccormack … Read more
Holding Vellum to the Light The pages of the city unfold its secrets like holding vellum to the light, a palimpsest of the past. Who walked here on sacred ground? What foundations lie under that coffee shop all birch and glass? You may see a piece of broken railing, the bronze of a sword. This … Read more
In an attention economy devised to distract and occupy consciousness, the exponential flow of information generates continual flux in its wake. The novelist William Gibson recently observed that this leaves us with ‘insufficient now to stand on.’[i] How can art and music respond in this context? Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) foresaw and forewarned about the development … Read more
On the LUAS, she counts thirty cranes spiking the skyline. She hasn’t seen this many since 2007. The entire journey into town, she keeps her face visible; she doesn’t care who sees the scar snaking from her cheek to the bridge of her nose. Under her jacket, she grips the hunting knife, reassuringly heavy against … Read more
A poetaster’s tribute to Geoffrey Hill’s The Book of Baruch by the Gnostic Justin (2019). I heard Sir Geoffrey refer many times in his Oxford lectures (2010-2015) to our current situation as one of ‘plutocratic anarchy’. I suspect that, like many, he was fascinated and frustrated by the oxymoronic sight of ordinary, ‘common’ people persistently … Read more
I first heard the story of Gene Shepherd after receiving a 46th rejection slip for my novel. Shepherd was a New York radio presenter who broadcast regularly for twenty-two years. What interested me about him was that he created a best-selling book which did not exist. Because he thought disc jockeys were just an extension … Read more
Poem written in old age The light that streams across the universe Brings evidence of other worlds than ours Where midst the flux of fields and particles Eternal wisdom older than the stars Unweaves her web of possibilities The patterner experiments and plays. Bright pearls arranged according to the laws of chance Or unknown logic, … Read more
Ireland is a funny old place. I’m not sure we’re prepared for the rough times ahead. We’re soon turning one-hundred-years old – which is basically puberty as far as nation states go. We’re riddled with latent energy – mostly guilt and anger – from the past, just as the future is becoming an unstoppable force. … Read more
Hardly a week goes by without someone asking me about my connection to Christopher Hitchens. Such enquiries are clearly predicated on our common concerns. I suspect at one level my own modest bohemianism and libertarianism has invited comparison. Although we share an unbridled enthusiasm for talking Hitchens was, however, also a great listener, something I … Read more
The thing that is currently occupying my attention is a new album that I’ll be releasing in April of this year. It’s a duo album with Dan Trueman called ‘the Fate of Bones’, a follow-up to our 2014 record ‘Laghdú’. Dan is a pretty big influence on me: the instrument I play, the 10-string hardanger … Read more