Search Results for 'Lockdown'

Since lockdown was lifted I’ve been travelling along the highways and byways on my way to clients’ gardens, and the wildflowers along the roadside verges never fail to take my breath away. In a ‘normal’ year, they are as much a marker of the seasons as the leaves on the trees, from wild primroses in April, to cow parsley and foxgloves in May, and the hundreds of nodding heads of the dog daisies in June. How precious they seem this year, when travel restrictions kept us confined, apart from daily walks, to whatever we had growing in our own gardens! There are still more to look forward to as summer unfolds, especially here in the Burren lowlands, with sky-blue scabious, aromatic wild marjoram and many others still waiting to flower, before the multitude of golden grass seed heads takes over in late summer.

THE FINAL of my nine Poems For The Lockdown is from my third poetry collection, Frightening New Furniture, which was published by Salmon Poetry in 2010. It was inspired by an interaction I observed in a famous Galway bookshop. Any resemblance to Charlie Byrne’s is entirely deliberate.

It is a sunny morning as I sit and sip my coffee. There are many jobs to do and a small list beside me that already has some ticks on it. I love my lists and I especially love getting to tick them off. On my list I have piano practice, work on a new track, skincare, exercise, and meditate.

Athlone natives, Ray and Kathryn Murphy, both now resident in Boston, with their children Kaylah, Sarah and Rian, spoke to the Athlone Advertiser this week, noting the impact of COVID-19 on their daily lives as the global pandemic remains a continuous health concern on a global scale.

IN THIS poem from my 2005 debut collection, The Boy With No Face, I take a comic look at my mostly unsuccessful attempts at wooing a person of the opposite gender in night clubs such as The Oasis in Salthill.

THIS POEM was written in 2002 and features in my first collection of poems, The Boy With No Face, published by Salmon in 2005.

THIS IS the title poem from my most recent poetry collection, published by Salmon last summer. It was inspired by my visits to the Infusion Unit at Merlin Park Hospital, where I am a regular.

Before Ireland ever entered into lockdown on March 27, Dr Conor Hogan saw the warning signs to people’s mental health, for businesses and normal life, as we knew it then back then, in general.

The average household can offset some of the financial impacts of COVID-19 by saving €5,000 per annum in three simple steps according to a mortgage expert.

I WROTE this poem in 2014 after the English poet Helen Mort, who, as well as being an excellent poet, is an accomplished cross country runner, asked me: "And do you run?"