Interview:
Dave Lordan: You’ve just put out ‘A Sacrament of Song’ with Kit Fryatt’s Wurm Press. It’s a brilliantly uplifting chapbook. Tell us a bit about it?
Karl Parkinson: Well, firstly, I’m very happy that Wurm have done this for me. I’d like to think that it is uplifting and as the title suggests, [...]

Pretending to be Taoiseach

Nearly all politicians are
dummies and mimics,
as are most junkies and drunks.
Also in nature predators
learn off their roles
by long-settled rote
and so do their victims.
Dissent is a kind of seeing deformity
that shows a way out.
This much I’m used to and sure of.
Last night I strolled
the Liffeyside boardwalk
being reminded, as usual,
by every new scene of [...]

I am proud to be among the many Irish and Ireland-based artists from across creative disciplines who have chosen to publicly support the growing campaign of boycott against apartheid Israel. Compared to the imprisoned Palestinian people themselves and to those taking part in flotillas and other perilous anti-apartheid activities in Palestine our contribution and risk [...]

The performance troupe Scream Blue Murmur, formerly known as the Belfast Poets’ Touring Group, are pathbreakers in Ireland’s currently burgeoning live arts scene. Here they are interviewed by fellow poet and performer Dave Lordan of Irish Left Review on the eve of setting off on their latest North American Tour with their new show ”Something’s Gone [...]

Gaza via London
Oh child of chance,
Oh blasted child,
Fair as ever anything,
Universe of wasted grace.
Kneeling now and always now
In your ruined house
Hearing troops of a general doom
Whistling with purpose
While priming their mortars for you.

From A resurrection in Charlesland
All the golden nest-egg rows changed back to brick.
The hoardings’  painted sunrays sprouted teeth
and claws.
In the online brochures the blue computerised skys
were recoded
as nets that are
thickening over us.