The Anvil Earth
By Stickleback
A collection of poems by Brendan O'Neill. The majority of which have already appeared in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, websites etc worldwide.
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- 3811 reads
Back the Strand
Seamus Heaney actually wrote to me to say he liked this one. "I like the movement of your poem. Nice and taut. And I like that “cloud chased Coomanaspig”"
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- 1841 reads
Bone-craft
Forced to furl. Framed to form and harrow the dry stone
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- 1416 reads
Burren
Traced the scrawl where bony fingers picked out each patchwork rut and row
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- 6776 reads
Carousel
"Love’s a solitary confinement When axes shift to realignment"
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- 6478 reads
Coming and Going
Some are kin and some are killing
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- 807 reads
Crayfish
First appeared in Poetry Ireland Review. It also featured on the UK Arts Council website for over a year linked to from the main page!
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- 1280 reads
Dinosaurs
Decay shoulders the great machines As trundling they fracture future
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- 811 reads
Lambs in the Road
Leading votive lambs, offerings to some roadside deity.
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- 921 reads
Landing Mackerel on the Pier Head at Portmagee
A feathered five from fathoms deep distills a shower of broken pearls
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- 4564 reads
No Moses Child
The transport box brought him back past a kitchen garden Gethsemane
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- 1560 reads
On the Famine Ridges, Garrafrauns, County Galway
Weak shadows moving up shallow trenches angry fists beating the anvil earth
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- 1878 reads
One Driver Escaped Uninjured
the clink of glasses striking a tinder heart
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- 5134 reads
Semaphore
wandering down drills through redshank and nettle cabbage-whites bobbing, stray amongst the stalks, sticking the spade in and heaving the hoard-clutch, excavated
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- 1502 reads
Spring Well
a rood from the Kerrigan place - a brain tumour they say
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- 1463 reads
The Mulberry Bush
Counting out an abacus of small conceits on the chains of broken out beasts
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- 4132 reads
Words on the Wind (Carnsore Point, Wexford, Ireland. 1978)
Millions turn their ears from the words on the wind Deaf to the call from the waste And though Apathy's triumph is gained without blood Death's...
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- 754 reads
Young Curate
(For G.M.H) An elliptical orbit brought him here Like some crazed moth. This one buzzing with borrowed energy Pentecostal fervour. Fiddling in six months short! Striking
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- 800 reads
Spider
*/ A spider spinning its web A delicate danger That consumes both Innocents and fools Yet craves escape From a home-made prison Will mock the...
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- 655 reads
Summer Cannot Wait
*/ The fly came through my waiting Shocked life into slow breathed expectancy Not a butterfly Though I wanted one Now the fly must do It has come...
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- 1082 reads
The Slide
In the dark of the park the slide sleeps At the bottom of the stairs a child weeps An African boy with stomach swollen An Angel in black His mouth...
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- 475 reads
Liffey Swim
No parting crowds Only darkness Eternity to the bay Swimming out From bright harbour light Yearning sanctuary Like some contrite cetacean In the...
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- 588 reads
The Waiting Room
Cracked walls demand that the silence within them Maintains itself, contains itself In this the Waiting Room A stubborn silence That pretends not to...
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- 425 reads
Sweet Thing
Gave me a First in misbehaviour Sleeping with a perplexed stranger
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- 3222 reads
Journey to Minneapolis
Sun bright misty morning Coasting through the goods yards, yawning Into long necked bottles, Coffee cups. Blue smoke rings Catching words like...
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- 2749 reads
Walk in the Park
Coming to this place Was a mistake The shadows of trees lie bare Stripped of leaf We once stood for a moment Watching the breeze Puppet the mad...
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- 602 reads
Broken Heart Surgery
Friend! You have admitted me To your broken heart surgery Listening to my sad testament Your remedy is self assessment Reason is your instrument...
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- 1 comment
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- 495 reads
A Crooked Wind
A crooked wind throws tears Back into the face of mountains Scorched with the pain of dead memories Now only poppies where flowers grew Silent...
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- 355 reads
Dressed to the Nines
Dressed to the nines Your fashion designs A face to the fact That it's just an act Under the veil Red cheeks hide the sorrow of blue eyes But tears...
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- 370 reads
At St. Theresa’s
Five candles for you In the suffering silence Five candles for you Amongst muffled cadence Five candles, five flames As you ring out our names Five...
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- 313 reads
Hermit
Hermit Tide alone is what moves us Refuge to which need must recourse Trapping the day out with a hard skin Carapace of remorse Driven hard and soft...
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- 184 reads
Heart of Oak (I)
Heart of Oak (I) Leaves have fallen and covered The trees caress on the barren soil Hard bitten winter has smothered The gift of life, a summers toil...
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- 190 reads
Heart of Oak (II)
Heart of Oak (II) They came and laid the forest bare Each proud tree rent from the air That leafy shelter once the hood Torn from the face of that...
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- 210 reads
Lighting Candles for the Lost
Lighting Candles for the Lost Making stations near main-line stations On my knees in contemplation Of angular sanctuaries. Overhead gantries Seeking...
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- 250 reads
At Small Heath Station
These walls now scored with scratch-black graffiti Hide robot metal eyes which peer along the tracks And dance to the hinge-song of a gate, cast iron...
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- 184 reads
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Writer/Producer/Director
www.sticklebackproductions.co.uk
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Writer/Producer/Director
www.sticklebackproductions.co.uk
www.vimeo.com/stickleback
www.twitter.com/stickleback_pro
Please support my writing by tipping me on Cash App
Writer/Producer/Director
www.sticklebackproductions.co.uk
www.vimeo.com/stickleback
www.twitter.com/stickleback_pro
Please support my writing by tipping me on Cash App