Poetry Day Ireland is an annual island-wide celebration of poetry which invites the nation to read, write, and share a poem on the day.
Presented by Poetry Ireland, the theme for this year is "Good Sports" celebrating the good sport in all of us, the drive to give it a go or to have a crack at it.
Read Patrick Moran's poem Gleam below.
GLEAM
i.m. Alex Higgins
.
Even when you'd shrunken
to a waifish figure,
hustling for a pittance
–your shots wobbling in jaws,
your would-be snookers
no longer deftly judged–
the glories of your prime
lurked in memory’s hold:
fugitive, stowaway...
There, in the arena’s
altar hush. Eyes defiant,
vodka-lit, you swagger
towards the baize, impatient
to pot the balls.
Disdaining caution,
you deploy spin and screw
and stun to keep a wavering
break alive: the testing brown;
a sweet cut on the blue;
that awkward pink rolled down
the table’s length.
Leaving the final sunken black;
your edgy gleam; the white
still on the speckless green
(From Bearings, Salmon Poetry, 2015)
Find out more about Poetry Day Ireland here.
