On the Shoals

On a Sculpture by Herbert Adams

Slane Hill Graves

At Bar Harbor Once, and Once . . .

The Shankill Road

Stations of Divorce

All the Hollowed Shells

This is an ongoing announcement; read down for periodic updates regarding "On the Shoals."

January 9, 2019
One of my more ambitious early undertakings as a poet was a series of poems set in Ireland.  Over the years, all six have appeared in a couple magazines (Modern Age and Alabama Literary Review).  But as I collected and revised them for my next (years from now) book of poems, On the New Physics, I found myself making so many changes that I thought it appropriate to republish them in their new forms well in advance of the appearance of that book.

And so, beginning today and continuing for the five weeks to follow, The Imaginative Conservative will publish in serial form the complete sequence, On the Shoals.  The first installment is "On a Sculpture by Herbert Adams," which you can read by clicking the image of the Irish National Gallery above. I will update this notice and repost it in the weeks ahead until the whole series has been published.

I thank Modern Age and Alabama Literary Review for permission to republish; the Imaginative Conservative for running this series in what I hope is a more satisfactory final form; and the spirit of Denis Devlin, whose densely loaded rifts of ore in sesta rima first inspired the series.

January 15, 2019 Update
I am pleased to say that Imaginative Conservative has just published "Slane Hill Graves," the second in the sequence of poems, "On the Shoals," which that magazine will be publishing over the next several weeks.  Click on the Hill of Slane above to read.

January 23, 2019 Update
The Imaginative Conservative has now published the revised version of "At Bar Harbor Once, and Once . . ." The third poem from "On the Shoals," and I think the most ambitious, with its movements between Maine and the Aran Islands.  Click the photography of Innis Mor to read the poem.

January 29, 2019 Update
The Imaginative Conservative has just published "The Shankill Road," the fourth poem in the series.  Click the mural to read.

February 5, 2019 Update
Today, the Imaginative Conservative publishes the fifth poem from "On the Shoals," which is called, "The Stations of Divorce."  Reading it again brought back very vividly the woman in Sligo I met years ago who, as will be obvious, originally inspired the poem.  Click the Viaggio​ painting to read.

February 12, 2019 Update
With the publication today of "All the Hollowed Shells," the revised and complete sequence of "On the Shoals" has been published, through the generosity of the Imaginative Conservative.  I hope some readers have found this an intriguing lyric sequence.  It will constitute the second section of my next book, On the New Physics (which is about three years away, incidentally but I digress. . .).  Click the Kerry shoreline to read "All the Hollowed Shells."