Conamara Blues: Poems

by ODONOHUE J

• ISBN13: 9780060196448
• ISBN10: 0060196440
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-22
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

<P>In this new collection of poetry, John O'Donohue explores the natural and emotional landscape of his native Conamara County, revealing a pastoral vision that is both personal and universal, mystical and of this world. O'Donohue's instinctive awareness of the contrasts of his land -- its places of light and darkness, its movements and its stillness -- is magically brought to life in his richly lyrical yet deceptively transparent language.</P><P>Translating the beauty and splendor of Conamara into a language exquisitely attuned to the wonder of the everyday, O'Donohue takes us on a moving journey through real and imagined worlds. Divided into three parts -- Approachings, Encounters, and Distances -- <I>Conamara Blues</I> at once reawakens a sense of intimacy with the natural world and a feeling of wonder at the mystery of our relationship to this world. Whether exploring the silent, eternal memory of Conamara or focusing on the power of language and the vagaries of human need and passion, O'Donohue tenderly reveals the fragile vulnerability of love andfriendship. The result is a musical, transcendent, and deeply moving series of poems that exemplifies O'Donohue at his finest.</P><P>Written with penetrating insight and distilled transparence, <I>Conamara Blues</I> offers a singular and lasting imaginative vision of a landscape of hope and possibility -- powerfully exhibiting the mastery of a poet at the height of his lyric powers.</P>

Author Biography

John O'Donohue lives in Ireland. He is a Catholic scholar who lectures and conducts workshops in the United States and Europe

Table of Contents

Approachings
Thought-Work	p. 2
First Words	p. 3
Nest	p. 5
Black Music in Conamara	p. 7
The Wound at the Side of the House	p. 9
Before the Beginning	p. 11
The Banshee's Grotto	p. 13
Wind Artist	p. 15
Elemental	p. 17
The Pleading	p. 18
The Secret of Thereness	p. 19
Breakage	p. 21
Inner Circle	p. 22
Fluent	p. 23
The Stillness Above Is Listening	p. 24
Mountain Christening	p. 26
The Night Underneath	p. 28
Decorum	p. 30
Imagined Origins	p. 31
Encounters: the Rosary Sonnets
An Paidrin	p. 34
The Rosary	p. 35
The Joyful Mysteries	p. 36
The Annunciation	p. 36
The Visitation	p. 37
The Nativity	p. 38
The Presentation in the Temple	p. 39
The Finding in the Temple	p. 40
The Sorrowful Mysteries	p. 41
The Agony in the Garden	p. 41
The Scourging at the Pillar	p. 42
The Crowning with Thorns	p. 43
The Carrying of the Cross	p. 44
The Crucifixion	p. 45
The Glorious Mysteries	p. 46
The Resurrection	p. 46
The Ascension	p. 47
The Descent of the Holy Spirit	p. 48
The Assumption	p. 49
The Coronation	p. 50
Distances
Words	p. 52
Wings	p. 54
The Transparent Border	p. 56
The Angel of the Bog	p. 58
Placenta	p. 60
Mountain-Looking	p. 63
Seduced?	p. 65
At the Edge	p. 67
Up the Mountain	p. 68
Prisons of Voice	p. 70
The Ocean Wind	p. 71
Outside a Cottage	p. 73
Breakage	p. 75
Double Exposure	p. 76
Elemental	p. 78
The Night	p. 79
Anchor	p. 80
A Burren Prayer	p. 82
Notes	p. 84
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.