Theo Dorgan's first two collections of poems, The Ordinary House of Love and Rosa Mundi have long been out of print. This book gathers in the poems from those earlier books in a single volume and brings them to a wider audience.
"No contemporary British writer could risk, as Dorgan does in 'A Charm on the Night of Your Birthday', 'I light the sky above our bed for you / with seven stars of gold, ploughing / the deep for you—' though many might give their writing hand for the debunking wit with which he continues: 'and that's not so hard / when you are the sea'. Such fluency between registers, as between worlds, is one of the things we most want from poetry, and this book delivers it throughout."
Fiona Sampson, The Irish Times
"I liken Theo Dorgan to a latter-day Aimhírgín, conjuring up the realities of existence out of the mists of the unconscious"
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
"The blend of street-warrior and muse poet is extraordinarily appealing… His is an Irish urban voice which can reach far into Russia as well as into the enchanted garden of Sufi love"
John Montague
Theo Dorgan is a poet, prose writer, editor, scriptwriter, translator and sailor. His other books include the long poem Sappho's Daughter, his prose account of a transatlantic voyage under sail, Sailing for Home, praised by Doris Lessing as "a book for everyone", and, in 2007, A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which he compiled and edited. He is the editor of Irish Poetry Since Kavanagh, and co-editor of Leabhar Mór nah Éireann / The Great Book of Ireland, An Leabhar Mór / The Great Book of Gaelic, the anthology Watching the River Flow and the acclaimed collection of historical essays Revising the Rising. His translations of the Slovenian poet Barbara Korun (in collaboration with the poet and Ana Jelnikar), were published as Songs of Earth and Light. He translates from the Irish and from the French and his own work has appeared in Italian and Spanish editions. He is a member of Aosdána.
"No contemporary British writer could risk, as Dorgan does in 'A Charm on the Night of Your Birthday', 'I light the sky above our bed for you / with seven stars of gold, ploughing / the deep for you—' though many might give their writing hand for the debunking wit with which he continues: 'and that's not so hard / when you are the sea'. Such fluency between registers, as between worlds, is one of the things we most want from poetry, and this book delivers it throughout."
Fiona Sampson, The Irish Times
"I liken Theo Dorgan to a latter-day Aimhírgín, conjuring up the realities of existence out of the mists of the unconscious"
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
"The blend of street-warrior and muse poet is extraordinarily appealing… His is an Irish urban voice which can reach far into Russia as well as into the enchanted garden of Sufi love"
John Montague
Theo Dorgan is a poet, prose writer, editor, scriptwriter, translator and sailor. His other books include the long poem Sappho's Daughter, his prose account of a transatlantic voyage under sail, Sailing for Home, praised by Doris Lessing as "a book for everyone", and, in 2007, A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which he compiled and edited. He is the editor of Irish Poetry Since Kavanagh, and co-editor of Leabhar Mór nah Éireann / The Great Book of Ireland, An Leabhar Mór / The Great Book of Gaelic, the anthology Watching the River Flow and the acclaimed collection of historical essays Revising the Rising. His translations of the Slovenian poet Barbara Korun (in collaboration with the poet and Ana Jelnikar), were published as Songs of Earth and Light. He translates from the Irish and from the French and his own work has appeared in Italian and Spanish editions. He is a member of Aosdána.