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Niamh Bagnell , Poet and Broadcaster Launch Speech For Eamonn Lynskey's, And Suddenly the Sun Again Lucan Library Thursday June 9th 2010 'Eamonn is a great supporter of the open mic - He has said that poetry should be entertaining, but he also says that poetry should stand up on the page as well as the stage.
He is true to both of these statements in this new collection, which is extremely entertaining and enjoyable, yet it is also thought provoking, inspiring and informative. He refers more than once to teaching in the book, and I think his work as a teacher has served him very well as a poet, not saying that all teachers should become poets, but perhaps all really good poets are teachers in a way, because of how they communicate something vital about their world to the rest of us.
The book ranges in tone from serious to positively giddy, yet each poem has the same strong sense of urgency, and you get the feeling that the poet knows what he wants to say, and knows how best to say it. The first section of the book echoes out of childhood as the quote at the start says. It reflects on the magic of a grandmother who collects religious statues like the Romans accumulated trophies of their conquests. In this section too, he tackles the passing of time and death in very different ways - in Daffodils on the M50 he reflects on how friends may be thieved away from us, and we're left with those for whom our stay or passing is a small thing - from that he goes to Thank you for Holding - in which he begs that he should be buried with his mobile phone, and that the chief mourner should keep their phone on, and topped up with plenty of credit. The second section deals with politics and the outside world. Eamonn has said to me that politics is one of the strong themes in his work, both in terms of the big P - which is the formal sense of the word, but also the small p - the politics of personal relationships, the reality of humanity being that wherever there are people there is politics. In ‘I'm sorry for the grunts get killed’ he tells simply of the harsh reality of war where young soldiers stop cars and find their lives are stopped forever. In ‘When mom goes to war", he tells with great honesty his feelings of revulsion at the fairer sex embarking on a war campaign "You couldn't call them women" he says. He brings us through a lot of tough scenes in this section - Hiroshima, Dachau, scenes of mining disasters in Ukraine and China - always bringing us to them with his own sensitivity, honesty and insight - which makes us glad we have such a knowing guide.
In the third part Eamonn brings us through some of his poetic journey, he gives us three quotes to set the scene - one of which - how stanza's can sometimes hurtle at you - strikes a chord with me in terms of Eamonn's work, Eamonn as a performer and as a poet can hurtle at the audience and the reader, taking no prisoners, he gets on with what he wants to say. He reveals some interesting insights into where you can find poetry, and the violent relationship with inspiration described in ‘The Fugitive Muse’ tells about how writing can be something to struggle with. In “Especially when” he tells of the serious consolation to be found in getting a poem written about something when you feel at your lowest, but then he concludes the time to write about things is always, and the variety to be found in this book reflects on a poet who writes at many diverse moments.
Part 4 - is about politics with a small p where he brings to life a lively cast of characters - from Joxer in his raincoat to a Bosnian housewife. “In an old man makes love” we see a beautifully painted interaction between an admiring elder gent and a young bemused shop girl, one of my favourites of the whole collection, he pays court to her, she is embarrassed and surprised by him but for a moment they touch hands and their blood runs parallel, a beautiful touching scene.
In the final section he takes us through some poems placed in the universal setting of the seasons and nature, going from January, to Easter, on into Summer time, and in his Summer Exam poem "Physics Today" he cleverly contrasts our complicated journey through life and its stresses and strains with the swish of orbits as we canter around the universe... A nice poem for anyone here who know of anyone starting exams today - it beautifully puts the whole thing in perspective. In “ And Suddenly the sun again” – the title poem of a collection surely designed for a Summer time launch – he tells of people facing the problems of life, arriving back eventually at a happy ending (Eamon tells me he wanted the sun again because he always liked fairy tales).
I know this collection will be a treasure of a book to be opened and reread over the years. There is something in it for every mood. I'll finish this introduction by reading the last verse from that last poem which perfectly illustrates the skill of this wonderful artist... "Then the sudden heavy smell of wet cement,
brown outdoor-chairs-on-sale now suddenly browner,
and the sudden pools, the gutters suddenly alive and then
the sudden silence when the sabres stop
and everyone is breathless taking in what he can do,
without a by your leave,
and suddenly the sun again." ' |
