Carcanet Press - Eye of the Hare

Description
Excerpt
Author
Contents
Awards
Reviews

I stood awhile
between land and ocean and found

a small stone polished sheer by sea-breaking;
cold-white as a winter moon
it dried quickly into dullness. I kept it,

touching at times on a small heart of creation
the way perhaps a poem
can hold all of our story within its core.
from ‘World, Flesh and Devil’

Eye of the Hare affirms a spirituality for healing a shattered world. In a richly textured collection, layered with Biblical echoes and the music of the Psalms, John F. Deane explores the possibilities of poetry to redress the failures of care towards the planet and the needs of society. Deane revives the language of sacrament and celebration with raw and tender grace; in sonnets, narratives and lyrics Eye of the Hare advances towards redemption. In the book’s final section, Deane honours the places and landscapes of Achill, that beautiful, demanding island off the west coast of Ireland.

Contents

One
Travelling Man
Public House
Shelf Life
The Marble Rail
The Tombs
On the Edge
Still Life
Bats
Eye of the Hare
Cedar
The Disappointed
Who Have Gone Before
Song of the Suffering Servant
Chewing on Stones
Lives of the Minor Poets
Abundance

Two
Edge of the Known World
Paris
The Colours
The Colliers
The Colliery
Words of the Unknown Soldier
Down to the Shore
Sissie
Roots
Shoemaker
Almost
The Garden, Waiting
Shorewards
The Hare
Birds, Beasts and Buttercups
World, Flesh and Devil

Three
Between Worlds
Mayo Theology
The Great Skellig
Sheets
Riddle
Weeds and Wilderness
Piano
Well-Tempered Clavier
Bikes
Ever This Night
Footfalls
Midsummer Poem
Mimizan Plage
More
Body Parts
In the Dark Wood
Sketch for the Statue of a Slave
Body Parts
The Caves
Wings
Snow
Dusk

Four
Achill: The Island
Gob an Choire: The Sound
The Major
Sraheens: na Sraithníní: Small Holms
Derreens: Small Woods
Cloghmore: Big Stone
Bunafahy: Lower Grassland
Bunnacurry
The Monastery
Purteen Harbour
Inishgalloon
Trawmore: Big Strand
An Caol: Keel
Slievemore: Big Mountain
The Heinrich Böll Cottage

John F. Deane was born on Achill Island in 1943. He founded Poetry Ireland – the National Poetry Society – and The Poetry Ireland Review in 1978, and is the founder of The Dedalus Press, of which he was editor from 1985 until 2006. In 2008 he was visiting scholar in ... read more

Awards won by John F. Deane Short-listed, 2016 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Semibreve) Winner, 2011 Golden Key of Smederevo award

Praise for John F. Deane 'In Naming of the Bones, Deane has assembled poetry of the most sublime beauty, arising out of thought processes that are profoundly Catholic in their early formation, yet now embracing the widest possible Christian earthliness. He is unceasing, relentless, in his thinking quest for the incomprehensible heavens, for that sense of godliness between saffron light and full moon.'

Thomas McCarthy, The Irish Catholic

'The highest levels of poetic craft and persuasion... Naming of the Bones is not just a spiritual journey; it is a lyrical one, filled with sonic texturing at the level of song and original figurative language that is never ornamental but always essential.'

Fred Dings, World Literature Today

'Deane is a skilled observer-of-things and he has the gift of a silvery tongue, the true poet's flair with words...All this is the assured writing of someone who has spent a lifetime in the contemplation of such things.'

Stuart Henson, London Grip

'It is a long, grave, sober, deep-grounding book, as elegant and eloquent as it is fragile.'

Michael Glover, The Tablet

'Deane finds the embedded music of particular moments - the inscape of them - and understands their cosmic vitality... [he] draws us into deeper listening and invites us into sacred, transcendent encounter.'

Michael P. Murphy, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry 2019

'John Deane invites all human beings, or pilgrims, whether Christian or not, to partake in his revelatory, redemptive collection... a true cosmic poetry for all of us, in all time.'

Patricia McCarthy, Agenda: Ekphrastic Issue

'Master-sonneteer, the Teilhard de Chardin of Irish poetry, Achill chronicler and gazer at the heavens, John F. Deane has created a real beauty of a collection in Dear Pilgrims.'

Thomas McCarthy, Poetry Ireland Review

  'These are words of a poet who lives history, who breathes at one with the world around him. Deane reminds the reader that we live only for a short while on this rock in space but that that time is precious and profound. We are all dear pilgrims - whether we realise it or not.'
Dublin Review of Books
'These poems are rich, evocative, replete with natural imagery, searching to know and express the unknowable.'
Niamh Pattwell, The Furrow
'Deane's work has always been distinguished by the wholeness of it's vision, and the poems of Dear Pilgrims are no exception: the joy and compassion of his responses to the natural world are of a piece with his spiritual preoccupations, and gesture towards his poetic forebears, in particular Hopkins and Kavanagh.'
Caitriona O'Reilly, The Irish Times
  'Both these collections (Dear Pilgrims & The White Silhouette by James Harpur) give the lie to the idea that it is no longer possible to think and write creatively and freshly about religion in modern poetry: both Deane and Harpur look back for some of their insights, especially biographically, but their poetry remains conspicuously watching, tasting and touching today's world.'
Stride Magazine
  'There is light and muscularity in these poems that sometimes unexpectedly recalls Ted Hughes'
Stride Magazine
'On a simple level, the poems in John F Deane's Semibreve (Carcanet) are elegies for the past and specifically for a lost brother. More profoundly, they teach us how bereavement, touched by a poet's tongue, can become a shared gift: "wonders of the flesh and spirit, a road-map for a shattered faith"'.
The Guardian   'Music, a stony, damp and deeply alive landscape (both Ireland and the Holy Land), a passionate and searching engagement with God - specifically with the local and physical God that is the central figure of the gospels - these are poems with all of John Deane's familiar richness. A deeply welcome collection.'
Rowan Williams 'Deane is a true poet. I have not space here to do him justice'
Helena Nelson, Ambit 'Deane is an exemplary poet.'
Gerard Smyth, Warwick Review
'The power of Toccata and Fugue lies in its beautiful rendering of unbeautiful things. Deane takes as his subjects what might ordinarily make one turn away: road kill, snared vermin, kittens in a sack weighed with stones for drowning, a seal washed ashore to die, lambs taken for slaughter, worms hooked for fishing and snails tortured by a child. Yet there is nothing pathological about it. Compassion not cruelty motivates the speakers in his poems whose unwavering gaze attests to their engagement with these subjects.'
Georgia Scott, Poetry Salzburg Review Autumn 2002

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Eye of the Hare John F. Deane 10% off all versions Categories: 21st Century, Christianity, Irish Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (Pub. Jun 2011) 9781847770929 £9.95 £8.96 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Jun 2011) 9781847778338 £9.95 £8.96 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Or, buy the ebook directly from Amazon Description Excerpt Author Contents Awards Reviews I stood awhile between land and ocean and found a small stone polished sheer by sea-breaking; cold-white as a winter moon it dried quickly into dullness. I kept it, touching at times on a small heart of creation the way perhaps a poem can hold all of our story within its core. from ‘World, Flesh and Devil’ Eye of the Hare affirms a spirituality for healing a shattered world. In a richly textured collection, layered with Biblical echoes and the music of the Psalms, John F. Deane explores the possibilities of poetry to redress the failures of care towards the planet and the needs of society. Deane revives the language of sacrament and celebration with raw and tender grace; in sonnets, narratives and lyrics Eye of the Hare advances towards redemption. In the book’s final section, Deane honours the places and landscapes of Achill, that beautiful, demanding island off the west coast of Ireland. Contents One Travelling Man Public House Shelf Life The Marble Rail The Tombs On the Edge Still Life Bats Eye of the Hare Cedar The Disappointed Who Have Gone Before Song of the Suffering Servant Chewing on Stones Lives of the Minor Poets Abundance Two Edge of the Known World Paris The Colours The Colliers The Colliery Words of the Unknown Soldier Down to the Shore Sissie Roots Shoemaker Almost The Garden, Waiting Shorewards The Hare Birds, Beasts and Buttercups World, Flesh and Devil Three Between Worlds Mayo Theology The Great Skellig Sheets Riddle Weeds and Wilderness Piano Well-Tempered Clavier Bikes Ever This Night Footfalls Midsummer Poem Mimizan Plage More Body Parts In the Dark Wood Sketch for the Statue of a Slave Body Parts The Caves Wings Snow Dusk Four Achill: The Island Gob an Choire: The Sound The Major Sraheens: na Sraithníní: Small Holms Derreens: Small Woods Cloghmore: Big Stone Bunafahy: Lower Grassland Bunnacurry The Monastery Purteen Harbour Inishgalloon Trawmore: Big Strand An Caol: Keel Slievemore: Big Mountain The Heinrich Böll Cottage John F. Deane was born on Achill Island in 1943. He founded Poetry Ireland – the National Poetry Society – and The Poetry Ireland Review in 1978, and is the founder of The Dedalus Press, of which he was editor from 1985 until 2006. In 2008 he was visiting scholar in ... read more Awards won by John F. Deane Short-listed, 2016 Irish Times Poetry Now Award (Semibreve) Winner, 2011 Golden Key of Smederevo award Praise for John F. Deane 'In Naming of the Bones, Deane has assembled poetry of the most sublime beauty, arising out of thought processes that are profoundly Catholic in their early formation, yet now embracing the widest possible Christian earthliness. He is unceasing, relentless, in his thinking quest for the incomprehensible heavens, for that sense of godliness between saffron light and full moon.' Thomas McCarthy, The Irish Catholic 'The highest levels of poetic craft and persuasion... Naming of the Bones is not just a spiritual journey; it is a lyrical one, filled with sonic texturing at the level of song and original figurative language that is never ornamental but always essential.' Fred Dings, World Literature Today 'Deane is a skilled observer-of-things and he has the gift of a silvery tongue, the true poet's flair with words...All this is the assured writing of someone who has spent a lifetime in the contemplation of such things.' Stuart Henson, London Grip 'It is a long, grave, sober, deep-grounding book, as elegant and eloquent as it is fragile.' Michael Glover, The Tablet 'Deane finds the embedded music of particular moments - the inscape of them - and understands their cosmic vitality... [he] draws us into deeper listening and invites us into sacred, transcendent encounter.' Michael P. Murphy, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry 2019 'John Deane invites all human beings, or pilgrims, whether Christian or not, to partake in his revelatory, redemptive collection... a true cosmic poetry for all of us, in all time.' Patricia McCarthy, Agenda: Ekphrastic Issue 'Master-sonneteer, the Teilhard de Chardin of Irish poetry, Achill chronicler and gazer at the heavens, John F. Deane has created a real beauty of a collection in Dear Pilgrims.' Thomas McCarthy, Poetry Ireland Review 'These are words of a poet who lives history, who breathes at one with the world around him. Deane reminds the reader that we live only for a short while on this rock in space but that that time is precious and profound. We are all dear pilgrims - whether we realise it or not.' Dublin Review of Books 'These poems are rich, evocative, replete with natural imagery, searching to know and express the unknowable.' Niamh Pattwell, The Furrow 'Deane's work has always been distinguished by the wholeness of it's vision, and the poems of Dear Pilgrims are no exception: the joy and compassion of his responses to the natural world are of a piece with his spiritual preoccupations, and gesture towards his poetic forebears, in particular Hopkins and Kavanagh.' Caitriona O'Reilly, The Irish Times 'Both these collections (Dear Pilgrims & The White Silhouette by James Harpur) give the lie to the idea that it is no longer possible to think and write creatively and freshly about religion in modern poetry: both Deane and Harpur look back for some of their insights, especially biographically, but their poetry remains conspicuously watching, tasting and touching today's world.' Stride Magazine 'There is light and muscularity in these poems that sometimes unexpectedly recalls Ted Hughes' Stride Magazine 'On a simple level, the poems in John F Deane's Semibreve (Carcanet) are elegies for the past and specifically for a lost brother. More profoundly, they teach us how bereavement, touched by a poet's tongue, can become a shared gift: "wonders of the flesh and spirit, a road-map for a shattered faith"'. The Guardian 'Music, a stony, damp and deeply alive landscape (both Ireland and the Holy Land), a passionate and searching engagement with God - specifically with the local and physical God that is the central figure of the gospels - these are poems with all of John Deane's familiar richness. A deeply welcome collection.' Rowan Williams 'Deane is a true poet. I have not space here to do him justice' Helena Nelson, Ambit 'Deane is an exemplary poet.' Gerard Smyth, Warwick Review 'The power of Toccata and Fugue lies in its beautiful rendering of unbeautiful things. Deane takes as his subjects what might ordinarily make one turn away: road kill, snared vermin, kittens in a sack weighed with stones for drowning, a seal washed ashore to die, lambs taken for slaughter, worms hooked for fishing and snails tortured by a child. Yet there is nothing pathological about it. Compassion not cruelty motivates the speakers in his poems whose unwavering gaze attests to their engagement with these subjects.' Georgia Scott, Poetry Salzburg Review Autumn 2002 You might also be interested in: Manhandling the Deity John F. Deane	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! 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