The Woman with an Owl Tattoo, by Anne Walsh Donnelly

From Fly on the Wall Press, The Woman with an Owl Tattoo was published in 2019. A single mother of two teenagers, Anne Walsh Donnelly lives in the West of Ireland. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Hennessy Literary Award for her poetry. She won the Spring 2018 Blue Nib poetry chapbook competition and was joint runner up in the Poems for Patience competition 2019. She was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2019 and read at the International Festival of Literature Dublin in May 2019. She has also been shortlisted for the Fish International Prize and the RTE Radio One Francis MacManus Short Story Competition. Her short story collection, The Demise of the Undertaker's Wife, was also published in 2019. 

This chapbook deals mainly with the process of coming out as a middle-aged woman. There are poems on 'Coming Out to to My Therapist', 'Coming Out to Myself', 'Coming Out to My Son', 'Coming Out to My Daughter', 'Coming Out to My My Mother' and 'Coming Out to My Father'. As a gay woman, I found 'Coming Out to Myself' very amusing. It's refreshing how open and honest the poet is about these experiences. Indeed there is much to relate to in the book on the experience of growing up as a lesbian, the idea of throwing 'Barbie into the slurry tank', friends telling your adolescent self that a boy is 'a ride', that pressure to conform described in 'It's Not Easy Being a Woman'. 

While this coming out is explored with gusto and a throwing of caution to the wind, the act of becoming a writer too is somewhat an act of rebellion. The work opens on 'Guide to Becoming a Writer', where Walsh Donnelly has lived a full, hectic life up to this moment of becoming the writer. It is at this juncture that the poet can say in 'Cúchulainn', 'In mid-life I grew into my childhood hero'.  

There are many sensual poems describing the pleasures of love-making, the satisfaction of the connection one feels in the acceptance and exploration of their sexuality. Walsh Donnelly says in 'I Have Lived', 'In her body/Grasped her bleached marram grass/Surfed her peaks and troughs'. 'Her Hug' too is full of desire and 'Being in Love at Fifty' speaks of its own magical significance. 'No More Fairy Tales' was published in Boyne Berries and what I loved about that was that the girl saves the girl, the subversion of the traditional, 'In my story I save the princess'. Of course the real truth of any fairy tale or quest is that you must save yourself, which the poet addresses in 'Self-love'. 

The collection is a wonderful romp through a woman's struggle to become authentic. The poems are sad, shocking, raw, courageous, comical, lusty and tender. They are always cleverly written and on point. Rural Ireland and the poet's love for her family are celebrated. Anne Walsh Donnelly has a great deal of natural talent and I look forward to her next work. In this Pride month it is a timely honour to review and recommend The Woman with an Owl Tattoo to those reading.