Anchored

by Lorna Shaughnessy

Full and various, Anchored establishes Lorna Shaughnessy’s range and power. From meditation on the landscape of the West of Ireland to the exploration of memories, personal or communal, treasured or pathological, to myths of sacrifice and betrayal, the various topographies are intimately connected by an authentic voice and feeling. The language is precise, on occasion subdued or suddenly adventurous: starlings rise ‘in a calligrapher’s upward stroke’, while the capacity of words to convey their own opposites makes a defiant cacophony in ‘Iphigenia unwritten’. This is a book with shadowy depths and bright enlargements of our many worlds.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin




At times beguilingly personal and story-driven, at times warmly and meditatively elusive, the poems in Anchored reflect Lorna Shaughnessy’s discovery of a deepened artistic resource. This beautiful book resonates with the sense of a commitment to wholeness by a writer whose gifts include the ability to unite the roles of teller and singer, and the courage, whatever the subject, to marshal the reader towards the heart of poetry.

Martin Dyar

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2016

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I can see it is competent and well written, this book was not quite my cup of tea though I am not sure why. However there are definitely things to like here and I will be interested to read her next book.