Dodging the Snow 2021

 

A Schoolboy Sleeping on his Book Jean-Baptiste Greuze

I'm delighted once again to be included in Dodging the Rain's 12 poems of Christmas, aka Dodging the Snow. Thanks to editor Neil Slevin for including 5 poems, written late last year, all on a festive theme. The poems can be read here, while The Christmas Book is posted below too. 

The Christmas Book

Treasure Island, Black Beauty, Heidi,

Lorna Doone, Oliver Twist, Huckleberry Finn

all populated Christmases past

(I can hear Marley’s chains rattling).

Their names are reeling spools, 

a child’s cinema on a dark winter morning, 

a galloping horse, a raft on a wide river, 

a high mountain top.

Under a duvet sky I ran by the moon 

of the torch with The Famous Five across moors.

I watched Anne’s dreams unfurl on Prince Edward Island,

realise her courage in those journeys to family and love.

You could never be lonely with a window 

to a wider world, another’s passion processed,

a transfer of energy, a most sincere communication,

a leaving for foreign places, and always a coming home.

Books are the real fairy tales.

Orla Fay

Happy Christmas 2020

Happy Christmas to all the readers of the blog. I had After Narnia published by Dodging the Rain on Christmas Day for their 12 poems of Christmas, Dodging the Snow. Some lovely work included in this segment, including poems by Maurice Devitt and Maeve McKenna. Thanks to Neil Slevin, editor. 

20/12: Jorrell Watkins, Real Snow; Chris Pellizzari, Andalusian Christmas Noir

21/12: Ricky Ray, My Favorite Time of Day…

22/12: David Lohrey, A Charlie Brown Christmas

23/12: Al Mclimens, Anaconda

24/12: Christine Brooks, Eve

25/12: Orla Fay, After Narnia; Maurice Devitt, Christmas Day

26/12: Beth Brooke, The Draw of Winter

27/12: Maeve Bruce, The Weighing; Maeve McKenna, Grief That Swims

28/12: Olga Dermott-Bond, Christmas Lights

29/12: Robert Ford, First Overseas Christmas

30/12: Jessica Coleman, Irish Sea

31/12: Dave Stacey, Isle of Man; Sandra Fees, It Isn’t About the Flowers

1/1: Ricky Ray, Resolution

Some Recent Publications Part Two

It had slipped my mind that Clear Poetry, a UK based zine edited by Ben Banyard, published two of my poems in September.

It was a real joy to write some poems for The Pickled Body's "A lot of what I like is trash" submission over the summer and to have a poem included in the issue which can be read here.

In June The Honest Ulsterman published my poem A Day of Rain which had been very cathartic to write.

Thanks to Dodging the Rain for including "The Singing Lighthouse" on their site in the autumn.

Another highlight of the year was the inclusion of a villanelle in Lagan Online's "Inking the Unthinkable".