When The Tree Falls

by Jane Clarke

Jane Clarke’s lyrically eloquent poems bear witness to the rhythms of birth and death, celebration and mourning, endurance and regrowth. An elegiac sequence, inspired by the loss of her father, moves gracefully through this second collection. Rooted in the everyday and backlit by mystery, here are poems to savour and return to, for the pleasure of finely honed lines that powerfully evoke the depth of our connections to people, place and nature. Jane Clarke’s first collection, The River, was published by Bloodaxe in 2015 to both critical and public acclaim.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2019

About the author

Irish poet Jane Clarke grew up on a farm in Co. Roscommon. Her first collection, The River, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. It was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, given for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry evoking the spirit of a place. In 2016 she won the Hennessy Literary Award for Emerging Poetry and the inaugural Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year Award. She was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Literary Bursary in 2017.

All the Way Home, Jane’s illustrated booklet of poems in response to a First World War family archive held in the Mary Evans Picture Library, London, was published by Smith|Doorstop in 2019, and was followed by her second book-length collection from Bloodaxe, When the Tree Falls. Jane also edited Origami Doll: New and Collected Shirley McClure (Arlen House, 2019), and guest-edited The North 61: Irish Issue (The Poetry Business, 2019) with Nessa O’Mahony.
Jane was born in 1961 and grew up on a farm in Co. Roscommon.

She lives with her partner in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow, where she combines writing with her work as a creative writing tutor and group facilitator. She holds a BA in English and Philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin, and an MPhil in Writing from the University of South Wales, and has a background in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Clarke, born in 1961, grew up on a farm in Roscommon. Clarke is a poet who published later in life. She published her first collection The River in 2015 with Bloodaxe Books. This volume is her second, and includes a series of poems about her father, including his final illness, as well as poems set in the landscape of Roscommon.

Her poems are the type I prefer – short, visual impressions, that leave an emotional aftertaste.
The poem “In Glasnevin” won the Listowel Writer’s Week Poem of the Year Award in 2016. It tells the story of Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Grenan, who were nurses and couriers in the Easter Rising 1916 and are buried together in Glasnevin Cemetery.

In Glasnevin

Finding the words carved
on their plain, granite headstone.

faithful comrade, faithful friend,
reminds me of my grandmother

who used to say there was none of that
in her day. I wish I could ask

the faithful Julia and Elizabeth
were they grateful for the mercy

of sharing a grave, did they choose
those words to save them from shame,

did they have someone to tell
that though the words said so much

they didn’t say enough. And, when
they nursed the rebellion’s wounded,

did they question the cost
of a new (free?) state?


The new Irish Free State (1922) and later Irish Republic (1949) was not liberating for women, and LGBT individuals. Grenan and O’Farrell were “companions” whose relationship was not acknowledged by general society. In independent Ireland, there was no divorce, no contraception, and women were forced to leave jobs when they married. The lives of LGBT people were proscribed. Micheál Mac Liammóir (died 1978), one of the most famous figures in 20th century arts in Ireland, and co-founder of the Gate Theater in Dublin, with his co-founder and partner Hilton Edwards (died 1982), were considered “Ireland’s only visible gay couple” There was no separation between church and state, and one church, the Roman Catholic church, had a special relationship with the state, resulting in decades of government policies that suppressed the rights of women and LGBT people.

I highly recommend Clarke’s poetry to lovers or poetry, Irish poetry and women poets.

[Sher · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite poet of 2021-- I like this collection a little less than her first collection. But, still enjoyed the topics-- her father's passing, relationships, nature-- sublime.

[Anne Donnelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best collection of poetry that I've read all year and I read a lot!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking for poetry in my local library I picked this book at random. What I found was a beautiful collection which mirrored recent experiences in my own family. The author has a wonderful ability to capture those everyday moments and highlight how important they were in hindsight. Infused with comforting imagery of nature. Through the heartbreaking grief, there's a comfort in these poems.

[timv · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of short glimpses and remembrances of a rural life coming to the end. I will read more of this poet.