Bay Area poet Jack Foley reads 'Don't Waste the Sun' for kpfaradio (@kpfaradio)

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Don't Waste the Sun by Oisín Breen - read by Jack Foley for KPFA Radio

An extract from my forthcoming book with Salmon Poetry, the Kerygma. A short quasi-ballad that runs concurrent with the third last 'chapter' of the work.

The Kerygma

Humanity Dick

A long form poem, meditating on consciousness, love, regret, and the metaphysical nature of being, written in eight parts, ending in a hallucinogenic dream.

Her Cross Carried, Burnt

The first poem to head-up my forthcoming collection. 

In another's words:  ’Dublin and the Loose Footwork of Deity’ is a rich tapestry of voices rendering that most literary of cities on the page. Oisin Breen tells us it is a city ‘built with your grandfather's bullet wounds, their barricades and lockouts, their serenades and glass-eyed fog forgetful memory’.

Taking its cue from early Modernism and with some of the intensity of ‘Howl’ this is a poem to inhabit. Walk its lines as you would the city’s streets."

This is a poem about Dublin, and the modality in which cities themselves are ordered through situations of power, told by way of the interactions between a narrator, Dublin as narrator, the audience, and the pantheon of Babylonian Gods and Irish Gods.

Dublin and the Loose Footwork of Deity

A playful experimental lament and celebration, or an elegy if you wish. A long-form spoken word poem whirlingly focused around a cracked mirror protagonist, taking in identity, the erotic, meaning, and laughing at death.

Love Song Ana Rua

That Rough Jerusalem

A performance piece that binds life, death, laughter, nostalgia, childhood, and complexity theory, then lingers with the microcosm of two seagulls blighted by still-births and trapped chicks, as they wail through the hot summer for what they've lost -- That part's oddly true.

A Crucible Of Honey

A rip-roaring time-splicing work in eleven movements that moves through Dublin, Edinburgh, Malta, a series of post-apocalyptic beaches, cliffs, and bus-stops, and a dream-like sea; taking in beauty and horror; love and the pit-patter of birds' feet; memory and identity; and culminating in a collapsing reverie of disrupted time.

Released as part of my first collection soon.

Isn't The Act Of Placing Flowers On A Tomb A Gesture Of Bringing Life Back To The Dead

Inspired by the passing of my closest friend's mother, and the death-mask he wore at the committal. This piece is a whirligig of contemplation over the various aspects of the life and death of a loved one, encompassing a mother's sexuality, as much as her care. Using the myth of Etain as a jumping off point for this meditation, this piece also has three distinct narrators, yet only one, depending on your choice.

Forthcoming Collection

Lilies on the Deathbed of Etain

Irish poet and journalist, Oisín Breen, a multiple Best of the Net nominee and Erbacce Prize finalist, is published in 117 journals in 22 countries, including in Agenda, North Dakota Quarterly, Books Ireland, Door is a Jar, Northern Gravy, Quadrant, Decomp, and The Tahoma Literary Review. Breen’s widely reviewed and highly praised second collection, Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín, a Scotsman poetry book of the year, 2023, has just be reissued by Downingfield (Nov. 20). It follows Breen’s critically well received debut, Flowers, All Sorts, in Blossom, Figs, Berries, and Fruits Forgotten (Dreich, 2020). Breen’s third collection, The Kergyma, is slated for release in 2025 (Salmon).

Buy Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín, a Scotsman book of 2023, here:
  
EU https://tinyurl.com/j4k8z6x9
US http://tinyurl.com/494h6edj
Global: https://tinyurl.com/2xfcztc7 

Buy Flowers, All Sorts in Blossom, Figs, Berries and Fruits Forgotten here:

https://hybriddreich.co.uk/product/oisin-breen-book-flowers/

Oisín

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