To Star the Dark
To Star the Dark by Doireann Ní Ghríofa is our poetry recommendation for June and is available for purchase on the Seaside Books online shop. Out from Dedalus Press, is the first new collection of poems by Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa, following her acclaimed prose bestseller A Ghost in the Throat. Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a poet and essayist. In addition to A Ghost in the Throat, she has written six critically-acclaimed books of poetry - each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include, among others, a Lannan Literary Fellowship (USA), the Ostana Prize (Italy), a Seamus Heaney Fellowship (Queen’s University), the Hartnett Poetry Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
When writing about a book I think it is helpful to include the blurb as this is what folks might first read if they picked up this book in a bookshop. We are told of To Star the Dark:
Do our passions control us or us them? These poems find themselves asking such questions in hospitals, in cellars, in Parisian parks and American laundromats, inside our screens and beyond them. Poems of blood and birdsong, of rain and desire, of aftermath and ambivalence, each spoken by a voice, which - like the starlings - sings, at once, both past and present.
This was my first time reading Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s poetry, and I was struck by the playfulness in her use of language. I have been teaching the Poetry That Doesn’t Suck course for the last few weeks, and one of our topics was how rhyme and rhythm work in poetry. This collection is a great example of how the use of traditional poetic techniques can lend itself to modern stories and ideas. This is evident from the opening poem A Spell in a Shed where we see the lines, “Lambkin, sheepskin,/ blood, shanks, mutton,/ pocketfuls of black wool/ when shears sing of cutting.” The strong rhythm in this piece gives it a nursery rhyme cadence and the near rhyme lends itself to a lyrical quality.
The poems bounce from subject to subject. There isn’t a specific umbrella theme or form — the poems are united in their use of language and their unique lens on day to day life. There is a poem about menstruation (While Bleeding) and one about Anna Akhmatov and Amedeo Modigliani (How the Crocus Climbs, How the Roses Rise). This makes the collection a surprising read. There is also a lot of variation in form. Dancing in the Demesne takes the shape of a circle on the page. Others like, Maude Enthralled and In Albumen, In Pixels, In Bricks are multi-part poems that change their shape and form as the poem progresses. Seven Postcards From a Hospital is a series of short prose vignettes. If you are looking for a poetry book that explores lots of different forms and techniques while also using accessible language, then I think you will really love this book.
Some highlights for me were the simple imagery and message within Under the City, A Light in a Cave. The poem is literally about paying for parking in an underground car park but it is so beautiful. I enjoyed the close rhyme in the poem Between Nectarines, especially the lines, “All winter, the infant/ inside me dreams/ of nectarines, / she thirsts/ for their dimpled clefts, blushing/ skins, sweet torn flesh.” I loved Waking Again, a short piece where the author imagines a world where Savita Halappanavar got the lifesaving abortion she needed to live. If you are unfamiliar with Savita’s story, you can find out more about her with this link and this link too. Seven Postcards from a Hospital, A Spell in Sunshine, Craquelure, and A Letter to the Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain were all favourites that I know I will return to again and again.
For More Information About To Star the Dark: