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 David Nash's poem All Square at Half-Time below.
All Square at Half-Time in the Mid-Cork Junior A Football Quarter Final between Canovee and Grenagh, Inniscarra GAA Grounds, 21st of August 2022
Something like the title of a poem
that rivals in itself the poem's length, I want them
to keep going, take heart in their parity,
and draw forever. It’s unbearable, all this hope,
yet 30-something men must bear it
and play more. Sport makes extra time
in that event, in a crack at infinity.
There are Hail Marys, yes. And there are matrices
with fewer permutations, although it’s also simple:
at each whistle, start again, make more decisions.
It means you’re strong if you hold out
and hold your ground, but we don’t go
for hero-worship–a muttered Dhera, milk
would turn faster than Eoin O’Driscoll gets a laugh, since
at this stage of the game, that’s all you can do.
(From No Man’s Land, Dedalus Press, 2023)
Find out more about Poetry Day Ireland here.
