“Eamonn Lynskey’s fourth collection of poems is masterly in its interrogation of the wide
spectrum of ordinary – and not so ordinary – experiences and how poetry might address
them. From the domestic to the international, the familiar and lyrical to the distressing and
tragic, Lynskey uses a deft and well-practiced pen to illuminate the realities of our
allegedly-modern world, while never losing sight of the intention always to create a poem.
Ireland's personal tragedies are seen as a component of the often-overwhelming sufferings
of a greater world; countering this is Lynskey’s ruminations on teaching poetry in a
classroom or meditating on a great painting. The world is a violent place, bombs fall as they
have always done, refugees risk everything and men seek work. Somehow it is within the
personal and the personal-as-poetry that a measure of quiet redemption may be found.”
Fred Johnston
Eamonn Lynskey writes of the pressures of our fast-changing 21st century, sometimes too fast-changing (‘he Walks his Several Cities’), and how our lives are supported by a cast of unacknowledged assistants in the practical demands of day-to-day life (‘your humble Servant’). Poems of loss (‘Those First Evenings’ and ‘an Emigrant’s return’) are complemented by others of renewal (‘This Turning hour and Everything Intent’). Extraordinary events are celebrated here too and the way they do not seem to affect us as much they might (‘20 July 1969 aD’ and ‘Selfie’). Many poems point to truths obscured by our mythologizing of the past (‘Before the World Was Storied’) and how it is that despite being caught up in the rush of events we are constantly drawn to reflect on just what it is, and why it is, this strange experience we call ‘living’.
Eamonn Lynskey’s poetry first appeared in the New Irish Writing pages of the Irish Press in the 1980s, edited by David Marcus, and since then widely in magazines and journals such Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, The SHOp, Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, The Stinging Fly, Boyne Berries, Orbis, Riposte Broadsheet and the Irish Times. He was a finalist in the Strokestown International Poetry Competition and in the Hennessy Awards and has published two collections, Dispatches & Recollections (1998) and And Suddenly the Sun Again (2010). He has been involved in the organization of poetry events in Dublin for many years and has presented poetry programmes on local radio. He obtained an M. Phil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin in 2012 and participated in the 2013 Stanza Poetry Festival in St. Andrews in Scotland. Before retirement he worked as a teacher and Adult Education organizer.
