Pigeon Songs

Pigeon Songs is Derry-born Eoghan Wall’s second collection of poems from Seren after his much-praised debut, The Salt Harvest. From the first piece, ‘Angry Birds’ we have a sense of the poet’s themes and preoccupations; we have a richly metaphorical and densely allusive style, a pull towards formal metre and structures, most often the sonnet or a proto-sonnet with couplets, as here. There is also the occasional vigorous vulgarity, adding a touch of blue humor to the canvas, breaking up the formal rigor. Family is a potent presence in poems inspired by parents, grandparents(as here), partners, children. Parenthood weighs large as alternately joyful, terrifying, and essential to everyday existence. We are invited to stare, to mourn, to laugh, even to dance ‘The Rare Old Mountain Jig’ in this various, lively, compelling book.

Eoghan Walls won an Eric Gregory Award in 2006, an Irish Art’s Council Bursary in 2009, and his work has been published widely in journals and anthologies throughout the UK and Ireland. His first collection of poems, The Salt Harvest, was shortlisted for the Strong Award for Best First Collection. He teaches creative writing at Lancaster University.