{"id":5557,"date":"2024-09-27T12:29:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T12:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2024-09-27T12:29:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T12:29:40","slug":"romantic-poets-in-the-wild-4-ciaran-orourke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5557","title":{"rendered":"Romantic Poets in the Wild #4: Ciaran O’Rourke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RPW is back with more poetry, the thing everybody loves! This week we have Dublin-based poet Ciaran O’Rourke. O’Rourke is a widely published poet whose second collection, Phantom Gang<\/em>, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2023. His third collection is forthcoming from The Irish Pages Press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ciaran O’Rourke in the wild.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These poems, entitled “John Clare Enclosed” and “The Commons,” take their inspiration from the life and writings of the Romantic poet John Clare. I’ll let the poet himself say a few words here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poems I submitted are from my second collection,\u00a0Phantom Gang<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(The Irish Pages Press), which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2023. They are meant, of course, as a tribute to Clare, a \u201closs-eyed wilder-man\u201d, who was also, at different points in his life, a kind of \u201chierophant \/\/ of dirt-in-bloom \/ and revelry\u201d. In writing them, I wanted to sift through the swarming static of contemporary history to a new zone of clarity, where the spectres (of poverty, displacement, homelessness, environmental corrosion) that so ruled Clare\u2019s world two centuries ago might be recognised afresh in our own \u2013 \u201cour age \/ of wilting seas \/\/ and homesick, lock-out blues.\u201d Both poems are filled with quotations and semi-quotations from Clare’s own work, so I think of them as echo-chambers rather than memorials: \u201cIs this, then, our one inheritance, \/ the ache where voices grow? \/\/ My poem\u2019s a lifted echoing, \/ as if they might continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JOHN CLARE ENCLOSED<\/strong>

John Clare, your eagle’s nose
grows wise and flat

on the else unsmelt
suppressions of the earth.

You knew the world particulate
and true \u2013 and here you sit,

demure in inky water-colours,
bright-berry-eyed and stately,

a water-jug at rest
in elbow-distance down the tray.

A boyish elder-look, like light,
breaks across your face; you stare

as if an age of plenty, long ago begun
in green delight and common-song,

had all dissolved, a memory,
to noise and nothingness,

some bleak beyond<\/em>
that slips your faded, folding

fist of bones, for now \u2013
though the groan (or grin)

that’s surfacing, the watch you keep,
would make a merry mix.

My own un-peasant hunger
knows no muck or grass,

the sodden thing like bread<\/em>
you supped for miles

that kept your famine-fingers clean,
but longs, in indolence, sweet-bitterly,

for you yourself, restored:
a five-foot shadow,

lit by wind and all at large
a-down the ringing heath \u2013

when time, like verse,
was gentle, coarse and full.

I’ve heard the very sun
would touch the earthen rim, far-off,

and lead you on\u2026 perhaps to this,
(my wisp of want, a lark’s desire),

to hale the air of once, and ever,
meeting no enemy & fearing none.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Commons<\/strong>

Sean, our common earth\u2019s in smoke,
the shadow-rule

of feasting, famine-fed conspirators
(a sleek elite) extends

to every nook
where gladness one-time grew.

\u2018Tis like a sunbeam
in the mist<\/em>, said some other

loss-eyed wilder-man
of love, like you

a grey-sky-sodden
hierophant

of dirt in bloom
and revelry: John Clare,

whose digger\u2019s life
and empty-bellied sorrowing

you praised as permanent<\/em>
and true<\/em> \u2013

in this, our age
of wilting seas

and homesick, lock-out blues.
With quick largesse,

your bursting blend
of magnanimity and vim,

in a liquor-flux of inspiration,
you reeled his verse

from memory, and pictured
peasant-crowds alit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with world-transforming rage.
I trod home across

the mossy, rain-
bewintered city\u2019s wreck

in quietness, alive
and less alone.

To feel at all: an act
of intimate dissent,

as gentle-hearted heretics
have ever felt and known.

Is this, then, our one inheritance,
the ache where voices grow?

My poem\u2019s a lifted echoing,
as if they might continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Join us next time when we’ll be reading poetry by Jodie Marley! See you then!

Adam Neikirk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RPW is back with more poetry, the thing everybody loves! This week we have Dublin-based poet Ciaran O’Rourke. O’Rourke is a widely published poet whose second collection, Phantom Gang, was… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[2,115,1],"tags":[123,111,117,114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5563,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions\/5563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}