Magnum Mysterium

Julie O'Callaghan

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781780375144
• eBook ISBN: 9781780375151
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

Magnum Mysterium is Irish American poet Julie O'Callaghan's first collection since Tell Me Normal: New & Selected Poems (2008). Her new poems have evolved from the early monologues – written in American demotic – to poems of heartache on the death of her husband, the poet Dennis O'Driscoll. But even in these harrowing poems she never loses her ear for the absurdities of modern life – including the grieving process where she can "see" her husband alive and doing what he loves. In Magnum Mysterium Julie O'Callaghan has continued writing poems which 'seem effortless and are immediately accessible and achieve great emotional weight by the lightest of means' (Michael Hartnett Award citation)

AFTER DENNIS O’DRISCOLL

67

Magnum Mysterium

BEYOND

Oh Dennis, I dream of you

in the northwest provinces

beyond communication

with the known world.

Who do you speak with?

In what language?

I’m sure you forget all about us

here in the ocean

surrounded by sea monsters.

I eat bowls of food

alone at the table

wondering where you are

my husband.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

The rattling keys

in my hand

I come

to our front door

enter

and

lock myself in

set the alarm

and commence

my Life Sentence. 68

PREDICTION

The Mayans

foretold

the end of the world

for December 21st 2012.

Credit where it’s due:

They weren’t far off.

The end of OUR world:

December 24th 2012.

NUCLEAR BOMBS 2

The nuns

taught us

to sit on the stairs

and cover our heads

in the event

of a communist

bomb attack

reciting Holy Phrases.

I sit on the stairs

I cover my head

and say over and over

– you will

never

come

back. 69

CAN I BE HONEST WITH YOU?

I’m not doing all that well.

I bow my head –

there is nothing I can see.

I can not look

at these rooms you lived in

I can’t look

at the chair you sat in

(your tweed jacket where you left it)

– what use would that be?

I bow my head

in this town we lived in

on this road you walked on

What is possible?

Not this.

I can’t look anywhere.

FORMATIONS

Den, there go those

damn birds

squawking and fl...

Table of contents

• Description
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Island Life
• Sitting in a Cloud
• Voyage
• After Gulliver
• MAXIMUM CAR WASH
• Zen Christmas
• Norman Rockwell’s Apples
• Riddle
• No Longer with Us
• Horse Power
• The Day
• Floating World
• Headlights
• The Bridge-Tender I Didn’t Call Dad
• News
• Beside Me
• Unfunny
• Last 4th
• Stay
• Ship
• Garden Daydream
• Bruisers with Groceries
• Ice Age
• Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Distant Memory
• New Year’s Omens
• Hidden
• 21st Century Pillow Book
• Departure Drama
• Mother in a Twister
• Broken
• Call
• Early on Indian Hill
• Teensy Tomatoes
• Perfect World
• Festivities
• Purchasing Vittles
• At Whole Foods
• Nuclear Bombs
• A Cabin in the Berkshires
• United Nations
• Peaceful Valley
• Check the Fridge
• Mystery
• Babu will show you to your room
• AFTER DENNIS O’DRISCOLL
• About the Author
• Copyright