Readings from the book of Exile by Pádraig Ó Tuama

Readings from the Book of Exile

For me this book has been long awaited for, as many of you will know, my appreciation of Pádraig and his work verges on the inappropriate.

He is very much a performance poet, and many of the poems in this collection I have heard him perform at Greenbelt, and so I don't just read the words I hear again the tone, the slow pauses, the lilt and rhythm of his performance.  But one of the joys of this collection was at times hearing the poems in my own dislocated but conventional English ascent and yet finding that they were still as powerful as ever.

Now I really want you to go and buy this book because it is brilliant and your life will be better for it (you can use the link above to get it from Amazon - but if moral scruples prevent you from using Amazon I am sure there are plenty of other places you can turn to instead) - so I am going to share just one poem with you ...

Ar eagla na heagla

There is your fear

and your fear of your fear.

There is your beginning

and your fear of where you are.

There is your body

and your words about your body.

There is your possibility

and your hatred of all failure.

There is the gaze

and your fear of the gaze.

There is your destination

and your fear of where you’re not.