Eileen Sheehan

claiming it (2006)

having failed to find
Reclariant in the dictionary
I’ve decided to claim it
as my personal invention

if I were Japanese I would render it
in a few elegant stokes

the pictogram would denote

woman leaning back in chair
having studied her life at length
is seeing things clearly again

usage would also permit
its application in Biology
when referring to
an advanced stage of recovery
following cardiac procedures

the way ten thousand shadows
darkening the sky can mean
a multitude of fledglings
reveling in flight

Eileen Sheehan’s poetry is widely published in magazines in Ireland and abroad including Poetry Ireland Review, The Shop, The Stinging Fly, The Rialto (UK), Agenda (UK), Pelagos (Italy),Versal (Netherlands) and l’Estracelle (Nord Pas de Calais). Her work appears in various anthologies, most recently in The Open Door Book of Poetry (ed Niall MacMonagle, New Island Books) and Winter Blessings by Patricia Scanlan (Hodder Headline Ireland). She is on the Poetry Ireland Writers in Schools Scheme and facilitates poetry workshops in schools and with writers’ groups. She has just been short-listed for the Brendan Kennelly Poetry Award 2006. Her collection Song Of The Midnight Fox is published by Doghouse Books. ‘claiming it’ first appeared in Versal (Netherlands) and is © Eileen Sheehan.