Tag Archives: Padraig O Tuama

I Did Not Know I Would Turn from the Stream… Quotes and Poems on the Tragedy of Losing a Spiritual Connection to this Earth

  New Zealand journalist Rod Oram’s answer in an interview on a question on willingness for individual action on climate change recorded a few months before his death March 19th, […]

Pádraig Ó Tuama – Some Poems and Reflections Before a Retreat With Him on the Island of Iona, Scotland

How to Belong be Alone It all begins with knowing nothing lasts forever, so you might as well start packing now. In the meantime, practice being alive. There will be […]

A Speaking Out, Again – Poems and Quotes in the Aftermath of the October 7th Attacks on Israel and the War in Gaza

NO SUCH THING AS THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER Silence rides shotgun wherever hate goes. Andrea Gibson from You Better Be Lightning, Button Publishing Inc., 2021 I was grateful to find this […]

The Art of Poetic Midrash – Guest Poetry Blog #18 – Introducing the Latest Contributor, Canadian Poet, Barbara Pelman – Part One of Two

ISAAC —after Czeslaw Milosz’s poem Should Should Not A father should not lay his son upon an altar, should not listen to all he is told. He should not wander […]

Are We A Form of Praise? The Praiseworthy New Poetry Collection, “Lent”, from the 2021 Mitchell Prize Winner, Canadian Poet Kate Cayley

Walking When the branches on the bare tree ahead turn to a red mist. When the slanted stones rising from the water at your right are a flock of crying […]

Eliza Griswold (IF MEN, THEN) and Victoria Redel (Speaking About Men) – A Tough But Vital Conversation Between Two Poems

Prelude to a Massacre Twenty men crossing a bridge, into a village, is not a metaphor but prelude to a massacre. Marred by violence my mind begs forgiveness, self-conscious at […]

Czeslaw Milosz – A Tribute – Part Two – A Poem to Honour the Men and Women in Ukraine in Wartime, February 2022

Here is the great paradox of poetry and of the imaginative arts in general. Faced with the brutality of the historical onslaught, they are practically useless. Yet they verify our […]

Writing Poems for Wholeness and Self-Discovery – A Richard Osler On-Line Session with Huge Thanks to Micheline Maylor and Mount Royal University – February 16th, 6:30 Pm Mountain Time

ON THE TABLE IN THE ROOM IN THE DARK house lies the book you didn’t know you were looking for, opened to the page with the poem about solace you […]

Turn Stones into Altars and Everything Is Going to Be All Right – The Wisdom of Irish Poets, Pádraig Ó Tuama and Derek Mahon

So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars. Let us listen to the sound of breath in our bodies. let us listen to […]

Liz McNally – # 1 in a Series on Patrick Poets – Poets I Met Through the Writing Retreats of Canadian Poet Patrick Lane

Collect for the Homeless God of the broken night. Finder of empty doorways, shopping carts, cardboard blankets, fast food refuse, cigarette butts, dropped coins and nick of time naloxone kits. […]