Gerard Hanberry’s fourth collection balances out the greed and violence of the world, and the inevitability of death, with the tenderness to be found in a loving relationship.
In the title poem, the discovery of the world’s oldest shoe is set against the backdrop of a prisoner’s execution in Utah, highlighting the fact that ‘not a lot has changed in five millennia’. It is just one of many lyrical reflections on life, on love, on loss – sometimes wry, always with a smile or loving gesture in an otherwise brittle world.
Gerard Hanberry’s most recent collection is At Grattan Road (Salmon Poetry, 2009; ISBN 9781907056062). His work has been featured on RTE Radio and Newstalk. He is also the author of More Lives than One (Collins, 2011; ISBN 9781848891203), a biography of seven generations of Oscar Wilde’s family. He was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award in 2000, and won the Brendan Kennelly Poetry Award in 2004. He lives in Galway.