Small Fires

Poems that illustrate the stories that lie buried in landscapes and in human lives. We come / to kneel at the doorway, / to peer into that kind of / dark. To think our way / backwards, listening. Tracing a series of journeys, real and imagined, Kelly Norah Drukker's Small Fires opens with a section of poems set on Inis Mór, a remote, Irish-speaking island off the west coast of County Galway, where the poet-as-speaker discovers the ways in which remnants of the island's early Christian monastic culture brush up against island life in the twenty-first century. Also present is a series of poems set in the Midi-Pyrénées and in the countryside around Lyon. Linked to the shorter poems in the collection by landscape, theme, and tone is a set of longer narrative poems that give voice to imagined speakers who are, each in a different way, living on the margins. The first describes a young emigrant woman's crossing from Ireland to Canada in the early twentieth century, where she must sacrifice her tie to the land for the uncertain freedom of a journey by sea, while a second depicts the lives of silk workers living under oppressive conditions in Lyon in the 1830s. In detailed and musical language, the poems in Small Fires highlight aspects of landscape and culture in regions that are haunted by marginal and silenced histories. The collection concludes with a long poem written as a response to American writer Paul Monette's autobiographical work Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. "The poems in Small Fires trace a series of journeys, real and imagined, and seek to illustrate the stories that lie buried, both in landscapes and in human lives. The collection opens with a section of poems set on Inis Mor, a remote, Irish-speaking island off the west coast of County Galway, where the poet-as-speaker discovers the ways in which remnants of the island's early Christian monastic culture brush up against island life in the 21st century. Also present is a series of poems set in the midi-Pyrenees and in the countryside around Lyon. Linked to the shorter poems in the collection by landscape, theme, and tone is a set of longer, narrative poems that give voice to imagined speakers who are, each in a different way, living on the margins. The first describes a young emigrant woman's crossing from Ireland to Canada in the early 20th century, where she must sacrifice her tie to the land for the uncertain freedom of a journey by sea, while a second depicts the lives of silk workers living under oppressive conditions in Lyon in the 1830s. The collection concludes with a long poem written as a response to American writer Paul Monette's autobiographical work Borrowed Time : An AIDS Memoir."-- Résumé de l'éditeur "The poems in Small Fires trace a series of journeys, real and imagined, and seek to illustrate the stories that lie buried, both in landscapes and in human lives. The collection opens with a section of poems set on Inis Mór, a remote, Irish-speaking island off the west coast of County Galway, where the poet-as-speaker discovers the ways in which remnants of the island's early Christian monastic culture brush up against island life in the 21st century. Also present is a series of poems set in the midi-Pyrenees and in the countryside around Lyon. Linked to the shorter poems in the collection by landscape, theme, and tone is a set of longer, narrative poems that give voice to imagined speakers who are, each in a different way, living on the margins. The first describes a young emigrant woman's crossing from Ireland to Canada in the early 20th century, where she must sacrifice her tie to the land for the uncertain freedom of a journey by sea, while a second depicts the lives of silk workers living under oppressive conditions in Lyon in the 1830s. The collection concludes with a long poem written as a response to American writer Paul Monette's autobiographical work Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir."-- Provided by publisher Cover Copyright CONTENTS I On Inis Mór At the Seven Churches (Na Seacht dTeampaill) East The Ferry In Night on the Dark Earth When it blows At Teampall Bheanáin October The Wild Goat Cill Éinne Beach Niamh On Inis Mór Village Two Blow-ins Sweater Shop Roots The Bodhrán Player Wild Bird’s Song Village Life Sea Legs West Storm Beach Centre: Eochaill Grave (Leaba Dhiarmuda agus Ghráinne) Burial Ground The Hunter’s Path Cill Mhuirbhigh Beach Pre-electric I’ll never know (after reading Synge) Storms in Spring Night’s Work Island’s End II Another Winter’s Child Another Winter’s Child III The Vine The Offering The Wild Boar August, Vallée de la Barousse The Vine Les Cagots IV The Silken Threads The Silken Threads V The Burning House Rose For Émile Nelligan The Burning House In Azé (Ars Poetica) Notes Acknowledgments