Glimpses

In a frantic world, the momentary glimpse can spark a sudden flash of insight. This resonating glimpse-caught on the move-ripples through the mind, illuminating past and present, fast-forwarding in a split second to reveal future possibilities. But in an instant it is gone, lost in the bustle of everyday life. In Glimpses, Brendan Kennelly opens his eyes-and ours-to the world and times we rush through without looking. With their quick fire wit and timeless wisdom, his glimpse-poems are in the tradition of riddles, epigrams, and proverbs. Sublime or profane, joyous or crazily raucous, Kennelly’s vivid glimpses have a life of their own, leaping beyond the words used to summon them up on the page. When lightning flashes, the graveyard dances.

Brendan Kennelly is one of Ireland’s most distinguished and best loved poets, as well as a renowned teacher and cultural commentator. Born in 1936 in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, he was Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin for over 30 years, and retired from teaching in 2005. He now lives in Listowel, Co. Kerry. He has published more than 30 books of poetry, including Familiar Strangers: New & Selected Poems 1960-2004 (2004), which includes the whole of his book-length poem The Man Made of Rain (1998). He is best-known for two controversial poetry books, Cromwell, published in Ireland in 1983 and in Britain by Bloodaxe in 1987, and his epic poem The Book of Judas (1991), which topped the Irish bestsellers list: a shorter version was published by Bloodaxe in 2002 as The Little Book of Judas. His third epic, Poetry My Arse (1995), did much to outdo these in notoriety. All these remain available separately from Bloodaxe, along with his more recent titles: Glimpses (2001), Martial Art (2003), Now (2006), Reservoir Voices (2009), The Essential Brendan Kennelly: Selected Poems, edited by Terence Brown and Michael Longley, with audio CD (2011), and Guff (2013). His Journey into Joy: Selected Prose, edited by Åke Persson, was published by Bloodaxe in 1994, along with Dark Fathers into Light, a critical anthology on his work edited by Richard Pine. John McDonagh’s critical study Brendan Kennelly: A Host of Ghosts was published in The Liffey Press’s Contemporary Irish Writers series in 2004.