Material Support

“Eamonn Lynskey’s fourth collection of poems is masterly in its interrogation of the wide spectrum of ordinary – and not so ordinary – experiences and how poetry might address them. From the domestic to the international, the familiar and lyrical to the distressing and tragic, Lynskey uses a deft and well-practiced pen to illuminate the realities of our allegedly-modern world, while never losing sight of the intention always to create a poem. Ireland's personal tragedies are seen as a component of the often-overwhelming sufferings of a greater world; countering this is Lynskey’s ruminations on teaching poetry in a classroom or meditating on a great painting. The world is a violent place, bombs fall as they have always done, refugees risk everything and men seek work. Somehow it is within the personal and the personal-as-poetry that a measure of quiet redemption may be found.” - Fred Johnston

Eamonn Lynskey writes of the pressures of our fast-changing 21st century, sometimes too fast-changing (‘He Walks His Several Cities’), and how our lives are supported by a cast of unacknowledged assistants in the practical demands of day-to-day life (‘Your Humble Servant’). Poems of loss (‘Those First Evenings’ and ‘An Emigrant’s Return’) are complemented by others of renewal (‘This Turning Hour and Everything Intent’). Extraordinary events are celebrated here too and the way they do not seem to affect us as much they might (‘20 July 1969 AD’ and ‘Selfie’). Many poems point to truths obscured by our mythologizing of the past (‘Before the World Was Storied’) and how it is that despite being caught up in the rush of events we are constantly drawn to reflect on just what it is, and why it is, this strange experience we call ‘living’.