Ben McGuire’s poems have appeared in The Irish Times, Cyphers, Poetry
Ireland Review and elsewhere.
In 2017 he was a runner-up for the Patrick Kavanagh Award for a manuscript
towards a first collection, and in the same year he was shortlisted for the
Words by Water Poetry Award and longlisted for the Dermot Healy Poetry
Award.
In spring 2018 he was paired with Paula Meehan for ‘The Blank Page’, a series
of interviews with poets by Niall MacMonagle at the National Library.
Born in Dublin in 1980, Ben works as a teacher and translator, and has
recently returned to Ireland after nine years living in Rome.
Here’s one he’s proud of:
Still Never
He’s still going. He’ll never be gone.
You can cohabit with any absence.
Those two bell notes judder, circle on
in and back out of time: wrong; wrong.
Flat space, it trembles back into abscess.
He’s still going. He’ll never be gone.
The bear hug of his after-life: the song
shouted between us finished now and endless.
Those two bell notes judder, circle on.
Having a child’s short; losing one’s long.
Is this the love that doesn’t need its object?
He’s still going. He’ll never be gone.
That that gentleness should have been cut off!
Eyes open, a past orphaned of prospects.
Those two bell notes judder, circle on,
clangour and harmony: a forked tongue. Prongs.
The harbouring in me still, the reflex.
He’s still going. He’ll never be gone.
Airfield Writers 