Nathanael O’Reilly – The Turning

Nathanael LE P&W 4 Nov-Dec 2024

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four November-December 2024

The Turning, poems by Nathanael O’Reilly.


The Turning

We caught the eleven o-clock train,
kissed on an island, stood on the wall

of King John’s Castle looking out
over the grey Shannon. The rain soaked

our clothes and hair, glistened on skin.
We talked through wind and lightning

bursts until dawn. Smoke rose
in the distance. Her gorgeous face

turned from joy to despair
an ocean and half a continent away.


Sacred Study

Framed paintings, illustrations, etchings, maps
and photographs cover three walls. My late
paternal grandfather’s favourite beer glasses
rest in a black-velvet-lined red case
on the shelf beside an empty flagon
of Flagstaff Hill port above journals
and notebooks spanning thirty years of life
in Australia, England, Ireland,
Germany, Ukraine and America.

My late maternal grandfather’s Irish
green corduroy flat cap, saved from the seat
of his car the day after he died, hangs
from a carved wooden knob at the end
of the curtain rod above the window
in front of the desk. A library
of poetry, fiction, drama, history,
criticism and philosophy packs
the shelves. The music collection lives

beneath the black record player. LPs
and CDs contain thousands of hours
of rock, folk and reggae. The blue suede
covered album my maternal grandmother
created before her death lives beneath
the music, preserving photographs,
letters, family stories, ancestors,
records from three countries for six
generations of birth, marriage and death.


Undertaking

Lift your feet from the ground, clutch the restraint,
sway on the suspended bench rising above the snow

uphill through clouds towards the summit and a blank
horizon. Surrender to movement, gravity, forces we

can never fully control. Travel blind with me
to the jagged peak where I will steady you.

Note: A terminal utilizing the end-words from Richard Siken’s Turpentine.


© Nathanael O’Reilly

Nathanael O’Reilly teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Arlington. His thirteen poetry collections include Dublin Wandering (Recent Work Press, 2024), Landmarks (Lamar University Literary Press, 2024), Selected Poems of Ned Kelly (Downingfield Press, 2024), Boulevard (Downingfield Press, 2024), (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020), and Preparations for Departure (University of Western Australia Publishing, 2017). His work appears in journals and anthologies published in fifteen countries, including Anthropocene, Cordite, The Honest Ulsterman, Mascara, Meanjin, New World Writing Quarterly, Rabbit, Southword, Trasna and Westerly. He is poetry editor for Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature.

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