Geomantic

by Paula Meehan

Comprising eighty-one poems 9-syllable 9-line poems, Irish poet Paula Meehan’s extraordinary new collection explores the subjects of loss, return, memory and the power of art, in which the linked but not strictly sequential poems act like tarot cards or i ching hexagrams, providing moments of clarity and insight during “the long night’s journey into day”. Paula Meehan was born in Dublin where she still lives. She studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Eastern Washington University in the U.S. This is her seventh collection of poems. She has written plays for both adults and children, including Cell and The Wolf of Winter. Music for work for radio, also published by Dedalus Press, collects three plays concerned with suicide during the economic boom years in Ireland. Her poetry has been translated into French, German, Galician, Italian, Japanese, Estonian, Spanish, Greek, Chinese and Irish. She has received the Butler Literary Award for Poetry presented by the Irish American Cultural Institute, the Marten Toonder Award for Literature, the Denis Devlin Award for Dharmakaya, published in 2000, the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry 2015, and the PPI Award for Radio Drama. In 2013 Dedalus Press republished Mysteries of the Home, a selection of seminal poems from the 1980s and the 1990s. She was honoured with election to Aosdána, the Irish Academy for the Arts, in 1996. She was Ireland Professor of Poetry, 2013 – 2016, and her public lectures from these years, Imaginary Bonnets with Real Bees in Them, was published by UCD Press in 2016.

Genres: Poetry

102 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2016

About the author

Meehan studied at University College, Dublin and Eastern Washington University in Spokane, Washington.

She has been awarded The Martin Toonder Award (1995), The Butler Literary Award (1998), and the Denis Devlin Award (2002) for her work.

Reviews

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread 2024:
An engrossing, expansive and thought-provoking collection. It was a joy to reread this book.

Review 2017:
A very strong collection that immediately grasps the reader's attention: as each poem is only nine lines long, it's easy to get sucked in, and to keep reading. Though Meehan has given herself the challenge of writing such short poems, they never feel constrained by this form: in fact, it seems to give her freedom to play with rhyme and rhythm and explore many different topics. Reading the collection in chronological order is also worthwhile, because images, such as the she-wolf as poet or of a father's death, appear and reappear in different poems and seem to echo one another. There are weaker poems -- some poems about Ireland and 1916, which may have been inspired by the recent centenary felt out of place to me -- but the majority of these are very strong, and I want to read and reread them. Meehan captures a sense of mystery and a luminous quality: below is one example.

The Syllables

Only the library angel knew
in which holy books the seeds were hid
that year they started cutting the tongues
out of the heads of the blasphemers.
One girl, a virgin, made a plain chant:
all those who heard took solace and drew
close; and we who can still speak are bid
sing it out at the top of our lungs,
seed syllables of the earth's dreamers.

This poem shows us just how far Meehan can travel in a short space, and how her poetry can be so charged with energy and strangeness.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gorgeous collection of poems, all short. I read this in an hour, but I keep thinking about some of these wee makings, how deep one can go with just the slightest turn of a word. We’re in the hands of a great master here, so if, like me, you’d never heard of this poet before, check Geomantic out. I love that the title is itself a rich play grounded in the Geo, but prophesying like a Mantic. Brilliant, and every word in this collection of poems is doing several jobs at once.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my husband traveled to Ireland this fall, I asked only that he bring home a few books of poetry by current, female Irish poets. After poking around bookshops and chatting with the booksellers, he returned with Geomantic by Paula Meehan and Rise by Elaine Feeney. I've just finished Geomantic, and what Meehan can evoke in nine lines is so, so good.

The Last Thing

my ebbing father said to me was
not the wind before he slipped below
the horizon of his morphine dream.

So was it the moon in the hospice
rigging? Or the cloud's buoyant shadow?
Or my mother's voice helming him home?

No. I think it was some ferocious
wingèd creature at the ward's window
breast feathers flecked with salt-laced foam.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this gift ten or so pages at a time, to give myself a chance to absorb and reflect on the poems and expressions and reflections on life. Powerful, beautiful, meaningful. And then, doing some research, I found that I had actually heard her read in 2000 on the same Stanford stage as my high school teacher and life-long spirit friend, the Irish poet Desmond O'Grady. Great coincidence of wonderful poetry.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t really tell you why this collection didn’t resonate more with me. I like most of the poems individually. I appreciate the experiment that was made to keep each poem a nice little cube. Maybe it went on too long? I don’t know. I was never dying to dive back in, though. Some other me might have needed these poems more, but the me here today didn’t love them.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of mystical poetry. From the mundane to magic, every single nine-syllable, none-lined poem is filled with the heart of Ireland. I have never devoured a collection of poetry so quickly and completely.

[Iria · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite of Meehan's poetry collections that I have read so far!