The shadow keeper

the long version

A quietly lyrical note sounds through most of the poems in the Shadow Keeper and her concerns are for the most part comfortingly familiar and domestic. Poems such as "The Shadow Keeper" ('He smiles up at me/with my own eyes') and "Wild Weeds" ('Wild Weeds scatter my garden,/I reap and sow and tidy up') set the overall tone. The simplicity of some of these poems masks a real poetic power, evident in a poem such as "Census": I have no furniture to speak of/just one copper pot given/on marriage by my mother/tied now with twine about my waist,/echoing like a bell in empty space. Fred Johnston (Poet & Ed) Irish Times 1997. These are strong poem, empathetic without drifting into sentimentality Kathleen McCracken, Poetry Ireland Review, Winter '97.