PRINT ISSUE PREVIEW: ‘The Shape Of This How’ by Medbh McGuckian
The May litany is chanted
In the misty twilight edges of the fields.
They are lighting candles at cemeteries,
Priests are whispering…
This poem is no longer available to read in full online. Read the rest of this work, alongside two more new poems by Medbh McGuckian, in The Lonely Crowd – Issue One, which can be bought here
Copyright © Medbh McGuckian, 2015.
Medbh McGuckian was born in Belfast where she lives with her family. Her collections of poetry include: The Flower Master (1982), Venus and the Rain (1984), On Ballycastle Beach (1988), Marconi’s Cottage (1992), Captain Lavender (1995), Shelmalier (1998), and Drawing Ballerinas (2001). Her Selected Poems 1978-1994 was published in 1997. Among the prizes she has won are: the British National Poetry Competition, the Cheltenham Award, the Alice Hunt Bartlett prize, the Rooney Prize and the American Ireland Fund Literary Award. She has been Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s University and at the University of Ulster; Visiting Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley; and Writer-Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.