Pat Boran, two poems

Listen to Pat Boran reading these poems.

A Natural History of Armed Conflict (2007)

The wood of the yew
made the bow. And the arrow.
And the grave-side shade.

Way of Peace (2007)

i.m. Eamon Keating

In Adidas runners
and white karate suit
with the simple crest—
a dove round a fist,
Wado Ryu,
the way of peace—
down the Downs,
past the gate house gate,
a chubby druid,
a breathing oak,
a shifting mountain,
following patterns
modelled on monkeys,
eagles and cranes,
stray dogs and dragons,
bird man of Portlaoise,
puff-jowled adder,
dancing bear,
a man in his 60s
somehow still
sane enough to play;
and me, 16,
hidden among trees,
glimpsing the way.

Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise in 1963. He lives in Dublin where he is Editor of The Dedalus Press and presenter of The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1. His New and Selected Poems, first published in 2005, was reissued by Dedalus Press in 2007. He is a member of Aosdána and his personal website is here.

'Way of Peace' appears in Our Shared Japan: An Anthology of Contemporary Irish Poetry (Dedalus Press, 2007), edited by Irene De Angelis and Joseph Woods. The poem is © Pat Boran and is reproduced here with his kind permission.