Fireflies
Published on 1. August 2011
80 pages
978-1-84777-845-1 (ISBN)
Description
Frank Ormsby's new collection travels among places strange and familiar: from the shaping memories of an upbringing in rural County Fermanagh, to a Belfast reinventing itself in a new century and the exhilarating novelty of America.
In the first part of Fireflies Ormsby explores the past and vibrant present of an area of New York State which he has visited for the past twelve years. It remains to him as elusive as the 'fugitive selves' of the fireflies of the title. The latter part of the book engages with the poet's experience of his native Northern Ireland - the sour legacy of the Troubles, the dynamics of a community extending and remaking itself.
Ormsby says he is by nature an 'anxious optimist', and these precisely lyrical poems are by turns elegiac and celebratory.
In the first part of Fireflies Ormsby explores the past and vibrant present of an area of New York State which he has visited for the past twelve years. It remains to him as elusive as the 'fugitive selves' of the fireflies of the title. The latter part of the book engages with the poet's experience of his native Northern Ireland - the sour legacy of the Troubles, the dynamics of a community extending and remaking itself.
Ormsby says he is by nature an 'anxious optimist', and these precisely lyrical poems are by turns elegiac and celebratory.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Carcanet Press Ltd
File size
0,88 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-84777-845-1 (9781847778451)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Frank Ormsby was born in 1947 in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.He describes himself as by nature an 'anxious optimist'.His work draws on his rural upbringing in Co Fermanagh but increasingly reflects a sense of Belfast where has lived since 1998.He is a graduate and postgraduate of Queen's University, Belfast and has worked as an editor and published three collections of poems.In 1992 he received the Cultural Traditions Awards in memory of John Hewitt and in 2002 the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award from the University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota.Since 1975 he has been Head of English at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
Content
Contents
PART ONE
Fireflies
One Looks at One
The Kensico Dam
At the Lazy Boy Saloon and Ale Bar
Valhalla Journal
Next Stop
Cemetery Walks
In Kensico Cemetery
After the Storm
Immigrants
Stormy Night, Route 87
Dry Side or Wet Side?
Davis Brook
Washington's Headquarters
What Will Survive
New World
Two Birthday Poems
Some Older American Poets
On Not Hearing the American Nightjar
Catching Fireflies
Fireflies in a Belfast Garden
After the Japanese
Firefly Hour
The Celtic Firefly
PART TWO
The Aluminium Box
Silent Reading
The Rabbit
Smiling Foetus
The Hole in the Roof
Blackbirds, North Circular Road
from City Journal
Aubade
The Ice-Bird
The Shirt Factory
Derelict Building, Limestone Road
Storm, North Circular Road, 2 a.m.
The Three Czechs
Small World
Leaving Minnesota
Colin Middleton, 'Lagan, Annadale' (1941)
The Telescope
The Statues
The Gate
Avigliana
Some Spring Moons, North Circular Road
The Whooper Swan
The Builder
PART ONE
Fireflies
One Looks at One
The Kensico Dam
At the Lazy Boy Saloon and Ale Bar
Valhalla Journal
Next Stop
Cemetery Walks
In Kensico Cemetery
After the Storm
Immigrants
Stormy Night, Route 87
Dry Side or Wet Side?
Davis Brook
Washington's Headquarters
What Will Survive
New World
Two Birthday Poems
Some Older American Poets
On Not Hearing the American Nightjar
Catching Fireflies
Fireflies in a Belfast Garden
After the Japanese
Firefly Hour
The Celtic Firefly
PART TWO
The Aluminium Box
Silent Reading
The Rabbit
Smiling Foetus
The Hole in the Roof
Blackbirds, North Circular Road
from City Journal
Aubade
The Ice-Bird
The Shirt Factory
Derelict Building, Limestone Road
Storm, North Circular Road, 2 a.m.
The Three Czechs
Small World
Leaving Minnesota
Colin Middleton, 'Lagan, Annadale' (1941)
The Telescope
The Statues
The Gate
Avigliana
Some Spring Moons, North Circular Road
The Whooper Swan
The Builder
