Poem by Cherry Smyth

Eyewear is very pleased to welcome the poet Cherry Smyth (pictured) this Valentine's Day weekend (and also, auspiciously, on a Friday the 13th!).

Smyth is an Irish writer, living in London. Her debut poetry collection, When the Lights Go Up, was published by Lagan Press, 2001. Her anthology of women prisoners’ writing, A Strong Voice in a Small Space, Cherry Picking Press, 2002, won the Raymond Williams Community Publishing Award in 2003.

Her poetry pamphlet, The Future of Something Delicate, was published by Smith/Doorstop, 2005. A second collection called One Wanted Thing appeared in 2006, again from Lagan. The title poem of this collection was nominated for the Forward Best Poem of the Year 2004, and carries Smyth's hallmarks: precision, linguistic inventiveness and joy.

Smyth was a prize-winner in the Tonbridge Poetry Competition, 2006 and the London Writers’ Competition, 2007. Her work was selected for Best of Irish Poetry, 2008, Southword Editions. She also writes for visual art magazines: Modern Painters, Art Monthly, Art Review and Circa. Smyth is a poet whose work is well worth getting to know.

Back to Back

This cinema that needs
no darkness
spooling bloom

overnight overfed pink
heads bunch
and brag on branches

perfume loose
and bareback
rides in from the gardens

back to back
petals zoom from buds
mouthing May

colour red, colour yellow
color Techni
disregarding fences

poem by Cherry Smyth

Comments

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