Frank Ormsby’s eighth collection of poems is, on the whole, a playful book which constantly surprises us with serious themes. History is the word and history the image, whether as in a dream about Auschwitz or a portrait of the History Club on its annual outing. Then spirit of place is richly imagined, whether in the form of ‘Juggy’, the ‘simpleton’ sleepwalking through the estate, or the humanised tumbling paddy, both clumsy celebrant and instrument of refinement among the furrows.
Elsewhere in the collection, Frank Ormsby demonstrates his skill with the resonant short poem. These pieces, mostly in haiku form, constitute a running tribute to the Japanese and Chinese poets he claims as his ‘oriental fathers’.
Frank Ormsby is by turn movingly elegiac and wryly determined to allow death its dominion in the face of mortality and his experience of Parkinson’s disease.
‘When he explores again a lifetime’s themes and preoccupations, Frank Ormsby, like all true poets, mysteriously finds himself breaking new ground. Even more uncannily, several of his recent poems already read like classics. Wise and vulnerable, this poet courageously scans the horizons presented by illness and death. Love poet as well as elegist, he embraces heartbreak and gladness. Its depth of thought and emotion gives The Tumbling Paddy a sense of resurrection.’ – Michael Longley
Too Late
The minute he knew death
had become his subject,
he closed the big notebook
and dashed for the door.
There at the door was death
with his big notebook
and the smile of one who knows
he has found his subject.
Frank Ormsby's retrospective, Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems, was published by Bloodaxe in 2015, and followed by his later collections The Darkness of Snow (2017) and The Rain Barrel (2019).
Frank Ormsby: three poems from The Rain Barrel
Frank Ormsby introduces and reads three poems from The Rain Barrel: ‘Untroubled’, ‘Under Fire’ and ‘Women at Funerals’. Neil Astley filmed him reading and discussing his work at his home in Belfast in April 2019. Separate videos are posted of Frank Ormsby reading selections of poems from each of his three Bloodaxe titles.
‘One of the happiest events of the year was the elevation of Fermanagh poet Frank Ormsby to the post of Ireland Professor of Poetry. His latest book, The Rain Barrel, has been hailed as containing some of his best work.’ – Damian Smyth, Belfast Telegraph (Best Books by Northern Irish Writers 2019)
‘In confronting Northern Ireland’s violent past amidst its seemingly idyllic setting, Ormsby has successfully managed to convey not just the individual personal cost, but also the depth of the communal loss… This honest Ulsterman is not afraid to challenge us, but he also gives us comfort.’ – Emmanuel Touhey, The Irish Times [on The Rain Barrel]
‘The poems in Frank Ormsby’s seventh collection, The Rain Barrel, treat familiar objects with a slant charm, giving them histories, personalities, and minds of their own…The cadences of Ormsby’s verse create a subtle music, and (though he rarely uses set forms in this collection) makes use of rhyme that brings out the distinct accent of his poetry.’ – Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times
'In Frank Ormsby's seventh collection of poems, a majestic charm is cast across the Irish landscape and the small farms among which he grew up... Ormsby's deeply intimate connection to his surroundings is both sensual and self-aware, openly suspicious of the delicate language of tenderness, whilst poignantly drawing on the continuing violence and conflict of Northern Ireland after The Troubles.' – Jade Cuttle, PBS Bulletin
'Frank Ormsby’s recent appointment as Ireland Professor of Poetry is late recognition for such a class poet known for poems that can capture vast worlds on minutely carved enamel, often celebratory in tone, yet so often also with hints of external threat... And Ormsby is also a seriously funny, entertaining poet, though, nearly always with some serious intent.' – Belinda Cooke, The North [on The Rain Barrel]
Frank Ormsby: The Darkness of Snow
Frank Ormsby introduces and reads seven poems from The Darkness of Snow: ‘Altar Boy Economics’ from the first set of poems exploring his boyhood in Co. Fermanagh; ‘Aloysius O’Kelly: The Christening Party’, ‘Joseph Malachy Kavanagh: Pursuing His Gentle Calling’ and ‘William John Leech: Interior of a Barber’s Shop’ from the sequence Twenty-six Irish Paintings; and ‘‘The Interpreter’ and ‘The Willow Forest’ from The Willow Forest.
Frank Ormsby: The Parkinson’s Poems
Frank Ormsby introduces and reads three poems from his sequence The Parkinson’s Poems included in The Darkness of Snow: ‘Agitans’, ‘Side Effects (1)’ and ‘Once a Day’.
‘Frank Ormsby has had a long and illustrious career in northern Irish letters… With the publication of his latest "70th birthday" collection, The Darkness of Snow, it’s easy to see why: here is a book teeming with wisdom and good humour, a book that combines formal dexterity with verve and wit… the fourth [section], The Parkinson’s Poems, is notable for its profound and often funny meditations on the nature of the condition, following Ormsby’s recent diagnosis. Yet it’s the closing narrative poem, The Willow Forest, which might be the book’s masterstroke. Taking as its subject the aftermath of an unspecified war, it presents us with a cast of depersonalised characters… and leads us in an entirely unexpected direction, reminiscent of the work of Zbigniew Herbert.’ – Tara McEvoy, The Irish News
‘To describe Frank Ormsby's The Darkness of Snow as wide-ranging would be something of an understatement, for this collection amounts to a surprisingly vast and deeply engrossing journey across the peripheries of the human condition... a deeply lyrical yet utterly unostentatious collection. Although we live in a world riddled with uncertainty, this can be warmly recommended without the slightest equivocation.’ – Malcolm Bradbury, Acumen
‘Ormsby has found his place and time in The Darkness of Snow. Ecological and political, personal and historical, these are songs of reconciliation by a poet who was always, in fact, a generous maker of his own peace processes, and exceptionally wise in the art of being human.’ – Carol Rumens, PN Review
‘The Darkness of Snow’s dark heart beats strongest in two closing sequences which help elevate it to a collection of extraordinary worth.’ – Martin Malone, Poetry Ireland Review
‘Frank Ormsby’s multi-stranded new collection, The Darkness of Snow, ranges over five parts, each composed of thematically connected poems or sequences… Ormsby brings humour and lightness of touch to his personal writing, and lifts the darkness of snow at apt moments throughout the collection.’ – Carol Rumens in her Poem of the Week column on The Guardian website.
Frank Ormsby: new poems from Goat’s Milk
Frank Ormsby introduces and reads three poems from the New Poems section of Goat’s Milk. The poems he reads here are: ‘The Confession Box’, ‘The Hour-glass’ and ‘Bog Cotton’.
‘A collection of poems from a distinguished poet who has observed his surroundings with a powerful and consistent intensity over many years.’ – Chair of Judges, Professor Roy Foster, on Frank Ormsby’s Goat’s Milk: New & Selected Poems, shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize
'Frank Ormsby belongs to that extraordinary generation of Northern Irish poets which includes Ciaran Carson, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon and Tom Paulin. He is a poet of the truest measure… From his earliest work Ormsby has favoured a natural shapeliness. The critic Eve Patten praises "his defiant attachment to economy of form"… A plain-speaking, down-to-earth utterance may be the norm, but it teeters on the verge of taking flight, and sometimes gives way to an exquisitely refined lyricism.’ – Michael Longley
‘Goat’s Milk: New and Selected Poems, by Frank Ormsby, reminds us why we missed this poet’s wry and concise voice during the 14-year gap in his writing life; and the new poems extend and ratify his unique angle of vision.’ – Patricia Craig, Irish Times (Books of the Year 2015)
Ireland: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin
North America: Wake Forest University Press
