Donal O'Flynn

Born in 1952, he grew up in the parish of Ballyhea, and now lives in Charlveille, Co. Cork, Ireland. Educated as an engineer at DIT Dublin and Brunel University London, his employment has taken him to America, Asia, The Middle East and Africa. A regular reader at the White House Poetry Revival sessions, he has been writing poetry from the age of twenty.

His first poetry collection Lost Grace was published in 2009 (Revival Press).

In 2011 Donal's second publication, 'The Tailor and Ansty Poems' (2011, Revival Press), featured a collection of poems based on epigraphs from a book by Eric Cross, namely, The Tailor and Ansty (Mercier Press). Due to its perception as being indecent and obsene, Cross's original book became the subject of bitter controversy and it was banned, until the 1960s, by the Irish Governments' Censorship of Publications Board.

I write poetry because of what great poets do for me ... 

... Comfort in solace

Release in misery 

Angers anchor

Loves silent prayer

 - Donal O'Flynn (Lost Grace)

POEM

(1)

EVERY SO OFTEN

Every so often Muse wakes me, beckons,

turns, and walks away.

And I follow no matter my state of nakedness.

We are lovers and have great days when

we meld and mould and articulate easily.

The loving experience that greatly moves

these times, vividly image the page.

Clear declarations of Love released.

Other times I duvet up and write alone.

Essential uncompromising stuff - sometimes venomed.

Mixed essence of things -sometimes garbled - not precise.

Impassioned gluey-woozy words

POEM

(2)

HANG 'EM

The Examiner half excused it by saying

“suffered from an altered state of consciousness”

Daw! Well yes!

Due to the fact he’d imbibed 

a large quantity of alcohol down

on strong prescription drugs

Big deal

As far as I’m concerned,

It doesn’t change the basic facts.

He’s alive. He is not the victim.

He is the criminal. 

And now for the replay of that very successful long running show

“Precedent and his Ass” by the Cloaked Wig and Dagger Players

Times like this I wish we were in the old Wild West 

POEM

(3)

IN FARAWAY PLACES

Guns are booming.

Bombs are being dropped in faraway

places with hard to pronounce names.

And we are helpless when told of the rapes

the killings,

the utter destruction. 

Here.........

The days follow one

quickly on the other.

Through clouds and sunshine.

We are hapless and helpless

Minding our own cares.

What they said:-

"Donal's work is always passionate and honest. His voice is individual and it is becoming more assured. He describes with sympathy and love the ordinary joys and trials of life, exchanges with and observations of family, friends and community that enhance our lives."

- Joe Slade (of Lost Grace)

"An intriquing mix of the sacred and the profane."

- Dominic Taylor (of Lost Grace)

"Donal O'Flynn has resurrected a piece of our Irish literary and folkloric past. He is a poet-chronicler, whom the older reader should also take heed of, if only to check against complacency and to guard against turning our backs again on people like the Tailor and Ansty. He is a poet who is also a gatekeeper to what is holy in human beings. His poems are laced with honest-to-god good fun and a traditional wisdom that throws light on the chaos that is so prevalent. He has passed iton. Read this book and rejoice, as the Tailor, himself a poet, might have put it.

- John Liddy (Introduction to The Tailor and Ansty Poems)