The Blotting-paper
by Ciaran Carson
He opened a book
he hadn’t opened for years
a sheet of blotting-paper fell
from between its leaves
it looked like the map of a city
whose streets petered out into blank
or led into blot
overwritten with false beginnings
and no real endings;
and he tried to remember the hour
he first had lost himself
in that labyrinth of words once almost
decipherable by
the mirror in the dim hallway
of a house no longer
on the map.
From From Elsewhere. Reproduced with kind permission from The Gallery Press.
Forward Prizes for Poetry
Shortlisted for Best Collection 2015
From Elsewhere
Ciaran Carson
About Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Carson (b. 1948, Belfast) says of his upbringing: ‘I was reared bilingually, Irish being the language of the home and English that of the outside world.’
He studied at Queen’s University Belfast where he was part of ‘The Group’ with Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Paul Muldoon, Medbh McGuckian and Frank Ormsby.
He worked as a musician, in the Civil Service and as a teacher before becoming Professor of Poetry at his alma mater. He won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2003 for Breaking News.
From Elsewhere (The Gallery Press, 2015) is a book of ‘translations of translations’ from the French poet Jean Follain, each faced by new poems inspired by those translations.’
He says of this book: ‘I wonder how far all this double-dealing comes from my bilingual background, as embodied in my name, Ciaran the Catholic Irish, Carson the Protestant Ulsterman. At any rate I relish the ambiguity.’
Forward Prizes History:
- 2003 Forward Prizes for Best Collection, Winner for Breaking News (Gallery Press)
