IRISH WORLD BOOK REVIEW

TONGUES

Micheal O’ Siadhail

Bloodaxe ISBN 978 1 85224 874 1 £9.95

An astonishing book of poems in which the poet twists and turns like a dolphin through a sea of linguistics; he writes with a striking ease of allusion in English, in Irish, Italian, German, Japanese; it is a scholarly delight and also because of the poet’s lightness of touch, a cerebral peppermill as this poet-genius grinds and spills proverbs, forms and syllabic patterns from many cultures.

Yet his poetry can be direct, as this from the poem Raufoss:

Foss for falls and raud for red
Rapids hued by iron ore,
Traces in a river bed.
Eas Ruaidh near Ballyshannon,
Red Falls in New York State, Cascade Rouge in Lebanon....Vehemence of love or blood,
Rouge of cheeks and rowan lips,
Stains of passions understood...”

And much more!

I salute this playful, scholar-poet.

Shaun Traynor