Massacre of the Birds, by Mary O'Donnell, Salmon Poetry 2020

In the winter garden

at full moon.

I watch the fields

turn to watered silk,

a chemise for the ghosts of me;

from Nocturnal, Mary O'Donnell

Massacre of the Birds is Mary O'Donnell's 4th poetry collection from Salmon Poetry. Reading the Sunflowers in September, Spiderwoman's Third Avenue Rhapsody and Unlegendary Heroes were all published in the 1990's. She is a novelist and The Light-Makers won The Sunday Tribune's Best New Irish Novel in 1992. She has won The William Allingham Award, The Listowel Writers’ Week Short Story Prize and The Fish International Short Story Award. Short story collections include Strong Pagans (Poolbeg, 1991), Storm Over Belfast (New Island Books, 2008), and Empire (Arlen House, 2018). She taught creative writing at Maynooth University and teaches poetry on Galway University's MA in Creative Writing. She is a member of the Irish Writers' Union, and a board member of the Irish Writers' Centre. She is a member of Aosdána. Her 2014 novel Where They Lie focuses on the 'Disappeared'. 

Hanging House in a Canal, the opening poem of Massacre of the Birds,  is dedicated to fellow writer Jean O'Brien and the collection is speckled with works in praise of, and defending women. Other poems are dedicated to Mary Guckian, Eileen Battersby, Mary O'Keefe and Bridget Flannery. It Wasn't a Woman is a list of violent crimes committed against the innocent by men and #MeToo, 12 Remembered Scenes and a Line remembers 12 incidents in which the writer was trespassed, the last line being 'I was never raped.' Finding 'Our Place' Heroic tackles the misogyny that found its way into  the drafting of the Irish constitution under De Valera. 

The plight of refugees from Syria is explored by the writer. In the beautiful The Little Waves, like Judgements, she admires the resilience of those who have found a place to stay in Sweden, they walk with dignity 'As if nothing had happened'. The poet finds a striking humility in their maintenance of an innocence, 'Their faces knowing only the future.' The displacement of the Syrian people though is like a judgement. Who is to blame? The Blackbird, God Almighty and Allah answers some of the poet's question. In the bird's song of nature she can find a peaceful faith that no organised religion can offer. 

In poems about her mother O'Donnell is sage and understanding. Travelling to see her, she ponders the nature of growing old and passing the Hill of Tara, from the motorway realises '...all that sunken ground,/what shifts beneath us/even as we live' in Mother, I am Crying. On Reading my Mother's Sorrow Diary reveals some of the inner thoughts of a mother, her unending love for her husband, her loyalty to her daughters and daily tittle-tattle. My Mother says No on Bloomsday is a reference to the power of saying 'no' and it describes a care shown in filial duty. 

From her very essence O'Donnell seeks to understand a broken and changing world. She tries to comprehend it as a voice of the Me Too movement, as a citizen of the world aghast at the refugee crisis in the Middle East, and as an observer of global warming. She is passionately involved in this life. The collection's titular poem A Husband's Lament for the Massacre of the Birds is a deeply felt lament for a destruction of the environment. This is a timely collection that deserves attention. It is current and insightful. The closing poem is as mysterious and prophetic as the closing lines of Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby. O'Donnell writes in The Future Wears a Yellow Hat that time to come 'greets us effortlessly,/waving its yellow hat/as we cross a high bridge/from opposite directions,/smiling'. Perhaps this is a calling to be more present!

Massacre of the Birds is now available here, from Salmon Poetry. The launch will take place this coming Thursday, November 12th at 7.30 pm online via zoom. Attendance can be booked here with Eventbrite.