Poets and Poems: Erin O’Luanaigh and “Avail”

What do you do when you’re sick, as in bedridden sick? Poet Erin O’Luanaigh did what many of us do – read a lot of books and watch a lot of television. She also did what many of us might not do – she used her experience to write poetry. 

O’Luanaigh had an illness in childhood that confined her to her bed for a considerable period. It was so serious that many of the adults thought she might not survive.  But she did, and during the illness and recovery she read some of the great works of literature. She also had a grandfather who loved old movies, and together they watched a considerable number of classic films from the 1930s and 1940s.

 

The child survived the illness, and she remembered what she read and what she watched. And she put that experienced to good use when she wrote what would become her first poetry collection, Avail: Poems.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry. 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Two Types of Delight: A Review of New Collections by Austin Allen and Charles Martin – Maryann Corbett at New Verse Review.

 

The Government of the World – poem by Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

The Cliff – poem by David Whyte.

 

Sea Houses – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Poet Laura: January Field Notes – Donna Hilbert at Tweetspeak Poetry.