Paul Durcan

Paul Durcan’s new book of poems, Cries of an Irish Caveman, will appear from Harvill later this year.

Poem: ‘The King of Cats’

Paul Durcan, 24 April 1997

To Francis Stuart on his 95th Birthday

You – on a Friday evening in Dublin At the curtain of the 20th century – Dare me to be a child again: ‘Imagine being Dostoevsky ... ’ (Pause) ‘Or a gnat.’ Lucky me To be sitting in the company of a dead man.

How many years ago is it since you died? You have always been a cat but since your death A...

How you do go on About the politics Of Stockholm – About how too controlled, Too predictable Are the politics of Stockholm; How the politics of Stockholm Are like the citizens of Stockholm, Too careful, too clean.

On, on, you go About the Swedish Academy; How the waters are awash With bobbing condoms. I doubt – but keep The thought to myself – That condoms ‘bob’,...

Sex’n’Love

Blake Morrison, 21 February 1991

How much do love and sex have in common? Not enough, it seems, for them to appear together in anthologies, which increasingly cater either for the sentimental or the pornographic market. We need...

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