John Menaghan, born in New Jersey to Irish-American parents, is Director of the Irish Studies and Summer in Ireland programs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize and other awards, Menaghan has published poems and articles in Irish, American, and Canadian journals.  Spending summers in Ireland, he lives the rest of the year in Venice, California with his dog and grand delusions.  This is his first book of poetry.
 
 

A Poem from--
All the Money in the World
by JOHN MENAGHAN

Waking to Find You Gone

I peer through morning air. 
A book, half-read the night 
before, yawns face-up on 
the floor, keeps its place 
inside the windless room.

Last night you slept in 
moonglow, the room a zone 
of light around your form. 
Not as in this daylight 
when the walls glare, 
white and worn, but 
honey-thick in darkness, 
gathered gold.  I scurried 
in beside you to be warmed.

Without your body by me,
I'm afraid.  I simply 
can't reach out, raise 
up the shade or place 
one naked foot upon 
the floor, cold grey 
tile sticking to my 
sole, and feel reborn.
Woman at work, missing 
midwife, I roll to 
your side of the bed 
and sleep away my life.
 

© Copyright John Menaghan, 1999
 

PRAISE FOR ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
Menaghan was born in New Jersey to Irish-American parents. He now spends summers in Ireland and lives the rest of the year in Venice, California. Among other awards, he has won an Academy of American Poets Prize. This is Menaghan's first published collection, and as such it marks an auspicious beginning. Menaghan's work is humorous, ironic, erotic, neurotic, and tender both by turns and often simultaneously. In one poem, called simply 'Fire', he describes the passion of two lovers in terms that are sensual and metaphysical in a manner reminiscent of John Donne. 'We brand our flesh forever with each other's fingerprints.' Many of the verses in the first half of the collection dwell on relationships in which there is at least the hope of sexual fulfillment, as when a friend of the poet reveals she is considering becoming a nun. 'I cup your marble hands in mine, and coax you into one more glass of wine.' Here Menaghan's voice rings clearly and truly. Menaghan's verse is quite wonderful.
Kirkus Review
 
 
 

(You can remove it later if you change your mind!)

Other Salmon Books by John Menaghan
• She Alone (2006)
• What Vanishes (2009)