As part of the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize blog celebration, I’m featuring the second collection by Irish poet Ciarán O’Rourke, Phantom Gang (2022).

There is an elegiac cast to much of this, with scenes that evoke historical warfare from the American West through the Second World War Resistance to Afghanistan. The title line references the discovery of the victims of an ancient raid. Even the love poems and descriptions of the natural world are more redolent of desperation and decline than they are celebratory. “Book of Salt,” in the tradition of Catullus, is the longest poem in the book and voices unrequited longing. Its short lines and end rhymes are in service of a passion mixed with hatred. There are lovely descriptions of curlew and starlings, but also mourning for the loss of the corncrake.

A favourite passage of mine was from “Portrait in Red and Black”:

Only the goldfinch

feels alive –

a skeet of colour,

stout as a cloud,

his knuckle and plunge

of plumage stark

against the slipping boughs.

I watch him thrum

and pluck terrifically,

marshalling the morning

with my heart in his mouth.

That excerpt is representative in that most of the poems are composed of two- or three-line stanzas, with assonance, alliteration and internal rhymes more common techniques than end rhymes. Although there are some mentions of recent figures – James Dyson, Elon Musk, Donald Trump – the collection as a whole feels inclined towards the past, with Bertolt Brecht and John Clare as stars. It’s austere, refined work, rooted yet ranging in both time and place.

More favourite lines:

“History”

Our one sick world spins on –

returningly, and slow

and with birds

the rising days begin,

the rage and ache

we call the spring,

a word for what

the carnage reckoned –

and still the birds returning.

~from “The Tree”

(My thanks to The Irish Pages Press and Midas PR for the free copy for review.)

I’ve reviewed Dylan Thomas Prize-longlisted poetry in several previous years as well:

• Eye Level by Jenny Xie
• If All the World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton
• Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe

For a reminder of the full longlist, see my post from last month. I’ve read 3.5 books from it now and would be delighted to see Nell Stevens’ debut novel (my review) make the shortlist. This will be announced on 23 March, with the winner on 11 May.

Happy St Patrick’s Day – this is also my token contribution to Reading Ireland Month!