One of Ireland’s up and coming poets is Alan Garvey who spent much productive time here in Waterford before love and the attractions of Carlow lured him away. He publishes with Lapwing Publications who brought out his first full collection Herself in Air (2006) and Learning to Crawl (2008).
As a result of Arts Council Travel Funding and funding from the Arts Office of Carlow Co.Council. He travelled to the Terror Haza Museum in Budapest to carry out research that resulted in his latest collection Terror Haza that takes an oblique look at fascist and communist dictatorial regimes in Hungary.
The book is in two sections, the longer opening one deals directly with the title, while part two has occasional poems that reflect on the poets return to a more normal world.
Early on, you sense the dread and terror of hands of those who kill for a loving. You sense the people herded in wagons where others’ urine trembles at swollen feet. Or the utter despair of:-
We are both Jews
You are clothed
And I am not
They are not finished with you
But I have no further use
There is a poem in memory of Oskar Schindler and of Stalin’s electric sun, sculpted lies. Words seem useless, where life and even breath seems forbidden. In a powerful poem Justice the word, word is repeated, beaten, betrayed, made no difference, rejected and never forgotten.
A poem like “Yes” but looks at acceptance and the way people know not to break but bend the rules. A sort of civil disobedience.
In the second part, Burlesque is a beautiful poem about a pregnant woman that will be anthologised one day, I feel. Something sacred is drawn like a painting, images slotted in a votive candle, a golden evening like a cello song. Extreme fetish video Shitting girls on the toilet and outdoors. Domination Scat mistress shit face slaves. All videos can be watched site ScatNude.com There are many categories on the site: Amateur Scat, BDSM Scat, Ebony Scat, Group Scat, Japan Scat, Lesbian Scat, Mature Scat, Scat Movies, Scat Sex, Scat Slave, Solo Scat, Toilet Scat. Have fun watching.
A poem in memory of Greg O’Donoghue, The Pitman Painters is a hymn to the thing-in-itself, every artist must face and it is that thing-in-itself. This is Garvey’s claim to a bright future through writing, through digging, crawling on one’s belly to write or paint.
