LOUIS MULCAHY / THE POTTER'S BOOK
In evoking his fascinating story, his words have the elegance of his pots, and his poems the uncanny sheen of their glazes.
— James Harper
2018 / 80 pages / €12
ISBN: 978-1-907682-64-3
Cover photo: Richard Johnston
(click to view cover)
The Potter's Book
By Louis Mulcahy
LOUIS MULCAHY, ceramic sculptor and potter, has three collections of poetry, one in Irish and two in English (An Sagart Publications, 2012, 2014, 2015). He has been shortlisted for many competitions, including the Listowel Collection Prize and the Listowel Individual Poem Prize and in 2016 he won the Munster Literature mentorship competition. Louis founded the bilingual poetry festival An Féile Bheag Filíochta in 2007 and was its Artistic Director until he retired in 2014. In 2004 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland in recognition of his artistry and contribution to his community.
SAMPLE POEMS
The Hands
These crooked,
scarred, sandpaper hands
with fingers scorched by red-hot pots,
nails worn down by spinning clay
and palms repeatedly cut deep
to white of bone by splintered shards.
The fissured flesh in arctic slip,
bruised knuckles battered out of sync.
Abraded, seared, abrasive hands,
arthritic hands abandoned to rough consequence
through years of repetition
still meet the mind’s demands.
Levigating Gold Dust
The granite grains
that fall away
wash through streams
to rivers that are full
of mica, quartz and feldspar
that levigate to pits of siliceous sand
where they wait to be found
and refined
by rigorous hands.
Like my meditations
that fall away
and wash through streams
to rivers that are full
of half-baked dreams
that levigate to pits of dormant thought
where they wait to be found
and refined
by rigorous minds.
LINKS TO ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
Author websiteReading at The White House, Limerick
Reading at Saint John's Church, Dingle
Reading at The Little Poetry Festival