from Dear Life

Life gives
                  us something
to live for:
                  we will do
whatever it takes
                  to make it last.
Kill in just wars
                  for its survival.
Wolf fast-food
                  during half-time breaks.
Wash down
                  chemical cocktails,
as prescribed.
                  Soak up
hospital radiation.
                  Prey on kidneys
at roadside pile-ups.
                  Take heart
from anything
                  that might
conceivably grant it
                  a new lease.
We would give
                  a right hand
to prolong it.
                  Cannot imagine
living without it.
 

Dear Life was Dennis O’Driscoll’s ninth book of poetry. Like his earlier work, it engages with contemporary issues – the internet era, the compensation culture, global warming – as well as providing fresh perspectives on the timeless topics of working and ageing, loving and dying, God and Mammon. Several startling poems give voice to twenty-first century Western attitudes towards religious belief. With its wry, double-edged title, the title sequence ‘Dear Life’ attempts nothing less than an exploration of the nature and purpose of human life.

This second edition includes a foreword by Seamus Heaney in which he pays tribute to the many sides of Dennis O'Driscoll – poet, critic, essayist, anthologist and nurturer of talent – and discusses the special qualities of Dear Life.