Lifting the Latch

Finely honed, thoughtful and affecting, Frank Dullaghan’s accessible poetry is increasingly assured and poised. His language is clear and elegant, but the apparent simplicity contains a depth of experience that these these poems memorable. Digging deep into memory, but eschewing sentimentality, Frank Dullaghan’s poetry is insightful, poignant, but ultimately life-affirming. Excerpt from: 'The Day of the Robin' Dundalk 1966 I grew to understand it often rained inside my father’s head, that sometimes he went under, drowned. But that day he put out his hand and the robin came to him, a small flutter of surprise from the close bush. Praise for previous collections: "Frank Dullaghan’s quietly spoken poems move between tenderness and terror with a humane warmth … The language follows and embraces a wide range of affairs, touching on loved, known and dangerous things – the texture of experience – lightly, unfussily, with a lovely ear for the plain cadence that is, for most of us, the sweet-sad music of being alive." George Szirtes