Massacre of the Birds by Mary O’Donnell
(Salmon poetry, October 2020)
Mary O’Donnell is an award-winning poet and fiction-writer. In
this, her eighth collection, she takes the reader from an
encounter with water creatures in Hanging House in a Canal to
the appearance of a satyr in O’Donnell’s back garden in Muse.
This beautiful collection from one of our most accomplished
poets is published just when many of us are drawing on the
natural world as we try to sustain ourselves through difficult
times.
Mythic nature abounds, but O’Donnell also offers a challenging
wake-up call to both men and women in poems such as
MeToo: 12 Remembered Scenes and a Line and the harrowing
It Wasn’t a Woman. She speaks of the endangered biosphere, of
losses incurred by forced migration, but also about the mother-
daughter relationship and the passing of time.
If you have ever seen people or beauty destroyed by injustice,
you will love this book. If you dream of a better world, you will
certainly want to read it.
Advance praise for Massacre of the Birds:
Grace Wells: ‘At last a proper creative response to our times . .
. Here are the lyrical, sensuous spaces of our intimacies . . . ‘
Richard Krawiec: ‘ . . . a global poet that joins hands with Adrienne Rich, Federico García Lorca and Tomas
Tranströmer. She blends the sensual with the mystical, the exotic with images from home.’
Nessa O’Mahony: ‘ . . . language that is precise, charged and hauntingly beautiful.”
Further information: contact Siobhan Hutson, Salmon Poetry 065 7071856 info@salmonpoetry.com
For an interview with the author contact Mary O’Donnell 086 1532460; maryodonnell4@gmail.com