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Author: MAHON, DEREK
Matches Found: 166


Mahon, Derek    Poet's Biography
poems available by this author


A DISUSED SHED IN CO. WEXFORD    Poem Text    
First Line: Even now there are places where a thought might grow
Subject(s): Social Commentaries


A GARAGE IN CO. CORK    Poem Text    
First Line: Surely you paused at this roadside oasis
Subject(s): Ireland - Emigrants


A LIGHTHOUSE IN MAINE    Poem Text    
First Line: It might be anywhere
Subject(s): Lighthouses; Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)


A REFUSAL TO MOURN    Poem Text    
First Line: He lived in a small farm-house
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


ACHILL    Poem Text    
First Line: I lie and imagine a first light gleam in the bay
Subject(s): Emptiness; Longing; Nostalgia


ACHILL       
First Line: I lie and imagine a first light gleam in the bay
Last Line: As I glance through a few thin pages and switch off the light
Subject(s): Emptiness; Longing; Nostalgia


AFTER PASTERNAK: 1. WHITE NIGHT       
First Line: In the distant past I can see
Last Line: Night which had seen so much


AFTER PASTERNAK: 2. THE EARTH       
First Line: Spring bursts in the houses
Last Line: The heart-constraining ice


AFTER THE TITANIC    Poem Text    
First Line: They said I got away in a boat
Subject(s): Titanic (ship)


AFTER THE TITANIC       
First Line: They said I got away in a boat
Last Line: Include me in your lamentations


AFTERLIVES    Poem Text    
First Line: I wake in a dark flat
Subject(s): Homecoming


AFTERLIVES       
First Line: I wake in a dark flat
Last Line: And learnt what is meant by home


ALIEN NATION       
First Line: Rx gotham drug gay cruises sony liquors marlboro
Last Line: Whisks me up hudson st in a thunderstorm


AN IMAGE FROM BECKETT       
First Line: In that instant / there was a sea, far off
Subject(s): Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)


ANDEAN FLUTE       
First Line: He dances to that music in the wood
Last Line: Who said the banished gods were gone for good?
Subject(s): Environment


ANTARCTICA       
First Line: I am just going outside and may be some time.'
Last Line: At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime
Variant Title(s): Antartic


APOTHEOSIS OF TINS       
First Line: Having spent the night in a sewer of precognition
Last Line: And crisis, perhaps we can learn from them


ARAN    Poem Text    
First Line: He is earthed to his girl, one hand fastened
Subject(s): Aran Islands, Ireland; Love


AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 1. THE HOME FRONT       
First Line: While the frozen armies trembled
Last Line: Clutching the empire news


AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 2. THE LOST GIRLS       
First Line: In ancient shadows and twilight
Last Line: In the allegory of spring


AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 3. THE LAST RESORT       
First Line: Salad-and-sand sandwiches
Last Line: Bun with its parting light


AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: 4. THE BICYCLE       
First Line: There was a bicycle, a fine
Last Line: The bright spokes glittering


BANISHED GODS       
First Line: Paros, far-shining star of dark-blue earth
Last Line: And wisdom a five-minute silence at moonrise
Subject(s): Rivers


BEAUTY AND THE BEAST       
First Line: I go night-shopping like frank o'hara I go bopping
Last Line: We want you to know we love you and root for you still


BEYOND HOWTH HEAD       
First Line: The wind that blows these words to you
Last Line: On shadows of the encroaching night


BLACKBIRD       
First Line: One morning in the month of june
Last Line: Breaking the silence of the seas
Subject(s): Environment


BRIGHTON BEACH       
First Line: Remember those awful parties
Last Line: Turning in for the night


BURBLES       
First Line: Far end of void
Last Line: Dentures grinned on him at last


CAMUS IN ULSTER       
First Line: Deprived though we were of your climatic privileges
Last Line: An old blues number playing to the plague wind


CHINATOWN       
First Line: ...And whips the pagodas of confucius square
Last Line: For, as confucius said, fine words are seldom humane


CHINATOWNJ    Poem Text    
First Line: And whips the pagodas of confucius square
Subject(s): Chinatown, New York City


CHINESE RESTAURANT IN PORTRUSH       
First Line: Before the first visitor comes the spring
Last Line: And whistles a little tune, dreaming of home


CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY       
First Line: When we start breaking up in the wet darkness
Last Line: Like daisies from a clover field in summer


COURTYARD IN DELFT; PIETER DE HOOCH, 1659    Poem Text    
First Line: Oblique light on the trite, on brick and tile
Variant Title(s): Courtyards In Delft - Pieter De Hooch, 1659
Subject(s): Delft, Netherlands; Hooch, Pieter De (1629-1684); Hoogh, Pieter De


COURTYARD IN DELFT; PIETER DE HOOCH, 1659       
First Line: Oblique light on the trite, on brick and tile
Last Line: And sword upon parched veldt and fields of rain-swept gorse
Variant Title(s): Courtyards In Delft - Pieter De Hooch, 165
Subject(s): Delft, Netherlands; Hooch, Pieter De (1629-1684)


CRAIGVARA HOUSE       
First Line: That was the year
Last Line: As over and step out into the sunlight


CURIOUS GHOST       
First Line: While your widow clatters water into a kettle
Last Line: They found unfinished poems in your sea-chest


DAWN AT ST PATRICK'S       
First Line: There is an old %statue in the courtyard
Last Line: Casts now upon everyone %in ancient shadow
Variant Title(s): Dawn At St. Patrick'


DAWN CHORUS       
First Line: It is not sleep itself but dreams we miss
Last Line: We yearn for that reality in this
Subject(s): Environment


DE QUINCEY IN LATER LIFE       
First Line: Tonight the blessed state, that long repose
Last Line: With anne, looking for some such panacea


DEJECTION    Poem Text    
First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain
Last Line: Who have twice come in from the cold?
Subject(s): Melancholy; Dejection


DEJECTION       
First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain
Last Line: Who have twice come in from the cold?
Subject(s): Melancholy


DERRY MORNING       
First Line: The mist clears and the cavities
Last Line: A russian freighter bound for home %mourns to the city in its gloom


DIRGE       
First Line: I live here on this harsh and lonely cliff
Last Line: To one who lights time past and time to come


DISUSED SHED IN CO. WEXFORD       
First Line: Even now there are places where a thought might grow
Last Line: Let not our naive labours have been in vain!'


DOMNEI       
First Line: Now that we all get laid and everyone swings
Last Line: I see the house she goes to blaze with light


DRAWING BOARD       
First Line: You think I am your servant but you are wrong
Last Line: I speak to you now as your indispensable medium


DREAM PLAY       
First Line: The spirits have dispersed, the woods
Last Line: Angels-evolved from snails and worms


DYING ART       
First Line: That day would skin a fairy
Last Line: Her plug tobacco with one to this day


ECCLESIASTES    Poem Text    
First Line: God, you could grow to love it, god-fearing, god
Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology


ECCLESIASTES       
First Line: God, you could grow to love it, god-fearing, god
Last Line: With rhetoric, promising nothing under the sun
Subject(s): Bible; Religion


EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT       
First Line: How should I not be glad to contemplate
Last Line: Everything is going to be all right


EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: How should I not be glad to contemplate
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Optimism


FIRST LOVE       
First Line: This is a circling of itself and you
Last Line: Love of your silence; you are the soul of silence


FORD MANOR    Poem Text    
First Line: Even on the quietest days the distant
Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Love


FORD MANOR       
First Line: Even on the quietest days the distant
Last Line: Deep in the dripping lilac bush
Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love


GALATEA       
First Line: Pygmalion lived for years alone
Last Line: From whom the city takes its name


GARAGE IN CO. CORK       
First Line: Surely you paused at this roadside oasis
Last Line: But with a sure sense of its intrinsic nature


GHOSTS       
First Line: We live the lives our parents never knew
Last Line: White curtains blew like ghosts into the room


GIPSIES       
First Line: I have watched the dark police
Last Line: Of scrap metal in my %garden grows daily


GIRLS ON THE BRIDGE       
First Line: Audible trout, %notional midges. Beds
Last Line: A mile from where you chatter, %somebody screams
Subject(s): Bridges; Munch, Edvard (1863-1944); Women


GLENGORMLEY    Poem Text    
First Line: Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man
Subject(s): Modern Man


GLENGORMLEY       
First Line: Wonders are many and none is more wonderful than man
Last Line: Necessity, if not choice. I live here too
Subject(s): Modern Man


GLOBE IN CAROLINA       
First Line: The earth spins to my fingertips and
Last Line: Listening to that lonesome whistle blow
Variant Title(s): The Globe In North Carolin
Subject(s): Constellations


GOING HOME       
First Line: I am saying goodbye to the trees
Last Line: As if it belongs there
Variant Title(s): A Departur


HERACLITUS ON RIVERS    Poem Text    
First Line: Nobody steps into the same river twice
Subject(s): Rivers


HERACLITUS ON RIVERS       
First Line: Nobody steps into the same river twice
Last Line: All these things will pass away in time
Subject(s): Rivers


HOMAGE TO MALCOLM LOWRY       
First Line: For gear your typewriter and an old rugby boot
Last Line: The gates of ivory with the gates of horn


HUDSON LETTER, SELS.       
First Line: Winter; a short walk from the 10th st pier
Last Line: At eight; but first the nightingale. Sing, muse


HUNGER       
First Line: While a late thaw began in the boarded eaves
Last Line: Your heavenly mansions blazing in the dark


HUNT BY NIGHT       
First Line: Flickering shades, %stick figures, lithe game
Last Line: Spectacle put on for fun %and not for food


I AM RAFTERY       
First Line: I am raftery, hesitant and confused among the
Subject(s): Raftery, Anthony (1784-1835)


I AM RAFTERY       
First Line: I am raftery, hesitant and confused among the
Last Line: A grinning disc-jockey between commercials
Subject(s): Raftery, Anthony (1784-1835)


IMAGE FROM BECKETT       
First Line: In that instant %there was a sea, far off
Last Line: And light enough, to read it
Subject(s): Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)


IN CARROWDORE CHURCHYARD    Poem Text    
First Line: Your ashes will not stir, even on this high ground
Variant Title(s): In Carrowdore Churchyard; At The Grave Of Louis Macneice
Subject(s): Churchyards; Macneice, Louis (1907-1963)


IN CARROWDORE CHURCHYARD       
First Line: Your ashes will not stir, even on this high ground
Last Line: Rinsing the choked mud, keeping the colours new
Variant Title(s): In Carrowdore Churchyard; At The Grave Of Louis Macneic
Subject(s): Churchyards; Macneice, Louis (1907-1963)


J.P. DONLEAVY'S DUBLIN       
First Line: When you stop to consider
Last Line: Like clock hands in a bar mirror


JAIL JOURNAL       
First Line: For several days I have been under
Last Line: Or a sleepless night-crossing


KATIE AT THE POOL       
First Line: My four-year-old daughter
Last Line: Of the water on the sky!'


KEY WEST       
First Line: Somewhere along route 1 - plantation, tavernier
Last Line: Who long ago gave up on the land and settled among the rocks


KINSALE       
First Line: The kind of rain we knew is a thing of the past
Last Line: Shining windows, a future forbidden to no one


LAST OF THE FIRE KINGS       
First Line: I want to be %like the man who descends
Last Line: But to die their creature and be thankful


LEAVES    Poem Text    
First Line: The prisoners of infinite choice
Subject(s): Leaves; Autumn; Fall


LIGHT MUSIC: 1. ARCHITECTURE       
First Line: Twinkletoes in the ballroom
Last Line: Light music in space


LIGHT MUSIC: 10. MORPHOLOGY       
First Line: Beans and foetuses
Last Line: A dust of stars


LIGHT MUSIC: 11. ENTER       
First Line: The steel regrets the lock
Last Line: The wood awaits your knock


LIGHT MUSIC: 12. DAWN MOON       
First Line: A slip of soap in the sky
Last Line: Of an alien dispensation


LIGHT MUSIC: 13. ELPENOR       
First Line: Edacity in the palace
Last Line: Pointing towards home


LIGHT MUSIC: 14. EAST STRAND       
First Line: Tedium of sand and sea
Last Line: Obscures the winter sun


LIGHT MUSIC: 15. ABSENCE       
First Line: I wake at night
Last Line: Somewhere my daughter


LIGHT MUSIC: 16. WATERFRONT       
First Line: I cover the waterfront
Last Line: Go down to the sea in ships


LIGHT MUSIC: 17. OUTSIDE       
First Line: The sculpted bird-bath and the pine
Last Line: The post-box and the telephone line


LIGHT MUSIC: 18. DONEGAL       
First Line: The vast clouds migrate
Last Line: A tiny bike squeaks %into the wind


LIGHT MUSIC: 19. SMOKE       
First Line: Vertical, horizontal
Last Line: The smoke of last resorts


LIGHT MUSIC: 2. HISTORY       
First Line: The blinking puddles
Last Line: To the low sky


LIGHT MUSIC: 20. ROGUE LEAF       
First Line: Believe it or not
Last Line: I am letting go


LIGHT MUSIC: 21. REVELATION       
First Line: A colour the fish know
Last Line: There will be no more sea


LIGHT MUSIC: 22. FLYING       
First Line: A wand of sunlight
Last Line: Is the life to come


LIGHT MUSIC: 3. NEGATIVES       
First Line: Gulls in a rain-dark cornfield
Last Line: Crows on a sunlit sea


LIGHT MUSIC: 4. NORTH SEA       
First Line: The terminal light of beaches
Last Line: Where a gull blinks on a pole


LIGHT MUSIC: 5. PLEASE       
First Line: I built my house
Last Line: Beat a path %to my door


LIGHT MUSIC: 6. RORY       
First Line: He leads me into
Last Line: His shadow in mine


LIGHT MUSIC: 7. SPRING       
First Line: Dawn light pearling the branches
Last Line: A glimpse of skin in the woods


LIGHT MUSIC: 8. TWILIGHT       
First Line: A stone at the roadside
Last Line: The stone is one with the stars


LIGHT MUSIC: 9. MOZART       
First Line: The clarinet concerto
Last Line: On the other planets!


LIGHTHOUSE IN MAINE       
First Line: It might be anywhere
Subject(s): Travel


LIVES    Poem Text    
First Line: First time out
Variant Title(s): Lives; For Seamus Heaney
Subject(s): Life


LIVES       
First Line: First time out %I was a torc of gold
Last Line: Or teach himself to pray
Variant Title(s): Lives; For Seamus Heane


MATTHEW V.29-30       
First Line: Lord, mine eye offended
Last Line: Only then was I fit for human society


MAYO TAO       
First Line: I have abandoned the dream kitchens for a low fire
Last Line: I think it might come out right this winter


MORNING RADIO       
First Line: The silence of the ether
Last Line: To the strains of a horn concerto


NO REST FOR THE WICKED       
Last Line: Slightly the worse for wear


NOON AT ST MICHAEL'S       
First Line: Nurses and nuns - %their sails whiter than those
Last Line: Re-reading years in a feminist light, %I am there with you


NORTH WIND: PORTRUSH       
First Line: I shall never forget the wind
Last Line: Sings now and for ever


NORTHERN STAR       
First Line: Ancestral voices bicker; ghosts
Last Line: Drowning out any further words.'


NOSTALGIAS       
First Line: The chair squeaks in a high wind
Last Line: A lost tribe is singing 'abide with me'


OLD SNAPS       
First Line: I keep your old snaps in my bottom drawer
Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love


ONE OF THESE NIGHTS       
First Line: A pregnant moon of august
Last Line: And life begins tonight


OVID IN TOMIS       
First Line: What coarse god %was the gearbox in the rain
Last Line: To its candour %and weep for our exile


OVID ON WEST 4TH       
First Line: When his wronged wife procne sat him down to eat
Last Line: And the encoded mysteries of the human heart


PENSHURST PLACE       
First Line: The bright drop quivering on a thorn
Last Line: Come live with me and be my love


POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY CAVAFY       
First Line: It is night %and the barbarians have not come
Last Line: Breaks loose and rolls down like a stone. %include me in your lamentations


RAGE FOR ORDER       
First Line: Somewhere beyond %the scorched gable end
Last Line: Long now till I have need of his %terminal ironies


RATHLIN       
First Line: A long time since the last scream cut short
Last Line: Whether the future lies before us or behind


REFUSAL TO MOURN       
First Line: He lived in a small farmhouse
Last Line: After the bird has flown


ROCK MUSIC       
First Line: The ocean glittered quietly in the moonlight
Last Line: Unanimous in their silent inquisition


ROMAN SCRIPT       
First Line: Rain in the night; now cock-crow and engine-hum
Last Line: May we find peace in the substance of the true


SAPPHO IN 'JUDITH'S ROOM'       
First Line: The reed-voiced nightingale has been my guide
Last Line: Didn't I say we'd live again in another form?


SEA IN WINTER       
First Line: Desmond, what of the blue nights
Last Line: While a new day crawls up the beach


SHAPES AND SHADOWS'       
First Line: The kitchens would grow bright
Last Line: A long-sought community


SMALL RAIN       
First Line: Once upon a time it was let me out and let me go
Last Line: We have been too long in the cold. - take us in; take us in!


SNOW PARTY       
First Line: Basho, coming %to the city of nagoya
Last Line: And the hills of ise
Variant Title(s): The Snow Party; For Louis Asekof


SPRING IN BELFAST       
First Line: Walking among my own this windy morning
Last Line: Exact more interest than my casual pity
Variant Title(s): The Spring Vacation; For Michael Longle


ST MARK'S PLACE       
First Line: Auden, floppy-slippered bear of st mark's place
Last Line: Sustaining us now as we face a more boring future


ST. PATRICK'S DAY       
First Line: Down the long library each marble bust
Last Line: A young woman hitching a lift on a country road


SWIM IN CO. WICKLOW       
First Line: Spindrift, crustacean patience
Last Line: And this the only life


THE ANDEAN FLUTE    Poem Text    
First Line: He dances to that music in the wood
Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


THE BANISHED GODS    Poem Text    
First Line: Paros, far-shining star of dark-blue earth
Subject(s): Rivers


THE BLACKBIRD    Poem Text    
First Line: One morning in the month of june
Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


THE DAWN CHORUS    Poem Text    
First Line: It is not sleep itself but dreams we miss
Last Line: We yearn for that reality in this
Subject(s): Reality


THE GLOBE IN CAROLINA    Poem Text    
First Line: The earth spins to my fingertips and
Variant Title(s): The Globe In North Carolina
Subject(s): Constellations


THE SEASONS    Poem Text    
First Line: Day-stars like daisies on a field of sky.
Subject(s): Seasons


THE SNOW PARTY    Poem Text    
First Line: Bash??, coming
Variant Title(s): The Snow Party; For Louis Asekoff
Subject(s): Snow


TO MRS MOORE AT INISHANNON'       
First Line: No. 1, 5th avenue, new york city, sept. 14th, 1895
Last Line: I remain %yr. Loving daughter, %- bridget moore
Variant Title(s): To Mrs. Moore At Inishanno


TOLERABLE WISDOM       
First Line: You keep the cold from the body, the cold from the mind
Last Line: And rocked him to a tolerable wisdom


TRACTATUS       
First Line: The world is everything that is the case'
Last Line: The steam rising wherever the edge may be?


TRAVEL SECTION       
First Line: I'm reading about life on the prairie and frontier
Last Line: Blithe and post-modern, for the post-pastoral folks
Variant Title(s): Albums: The Wild Wes


TWO SONGS FOR DOREEN: 1. HIS SONG       
First Line: Months on, you hold me still
Last Line: The shadows I lie with now


TWO SONGS FOR DOREEN: 2. HER SONG       
First Line: A hundred men imagine
Last Line: Blossom on a blackthorn bush


UNBORN CHILD       
First Line: I have already come to the verge of %departure
Last Line: Or take a day or two, my days are numbered


WATERFRONT       
First Line: Chaste convalescents from an exigent world
Last Line: - subvert the dominant paradigm. Gabriel 141


WOODS       
First Line: Two years we spent
Last Line: Confront the darkness in another place


YADDO LETTER       
First Line: Here among silent lakes and dripping pines
Last Line: Write to me soon in dublin. %my love, as ever, %- daddy


YELLOW BOOK: 1. NIGHT THOUGHTS       
First Line: Night thoughts are best, the ones that visit us
Last Line: Like a storm lantern the lonely planet swings


YELLOW BOOK: 10. THE IDIOCY OF HUMAN ASPIRATION       
First Line: No one in his right mind would want to be
Last Line: I leave you to the delights of modern life


YELLOW BOOK: 12. APHRODITE'S POOL       
First Line: I dive and rise in an explosion of spindrift
Last Line: A star-net hums in the aphrodisiac sea-lanes


YELLOW BOOK: 13. DUSK       
First Line: Night now, bewitching night, friend of the evil-doer
Last Line: Of house and home, being outcast in this life


YELLOW BOOK: 14. RUE DES BEAUX-ARTS       
First Line: The new art is everywhere with its whiplash line
Last Line: The greatest men fail, or seem to have failed.'


YELLOW BOOK: 15. SMOKE       
First Line: Bone-idle, I lie listening to the rain
Last Line: Used his own manuscripts as cigarette paper


YELLOW BOOK: 16. AMERICA DESERTA       
First Line: Often enough you've listened to me complain
Last Line: And a nation singing its heart out in the business pages


YELLOW BOOK: 17. THE WORLD OF J. G. FARRELL       
First Line: A huge house (trouble) at the water's edge
Last Line: Do nothing do nothing and everything will be done


YELLOW BOOK: 18. A BANGOR REQUIEM       
First Line: We stand - not many of us - in a new cemetery
Last Line: Ranch houses, dusty palms, blue skies of the republic


YELLOW BOOK: 2. AXEL'S CASTLE       
First Line: Rain all day; now clouds clear; a brief sun, the winds die
Last Line: Computer talks to computer, machine to answering machine


YELLOW BOOK: 20. CHRISTMAS IN KINSALE       
First Line: After the fairy lights in seaside lounge and bar
Last Line: Again the white islands shouting, 'come on; come on!


YELLOW BOOK: 3. AT THE SHELBOURNE       
First Line: Sunrise in the irish sea, dawn over dublin bay
Last Line: However late the hour, however dark the night


YELLOW BOOK: 8. HANGOVER SQUARE       
First Line: The snowman infants from the nursery school
Last Line: One letter at a time, fur round the edges