Eileen McCluskey writes with a left-handed slant. In addition to her OPP works, Eileen's poetry has appeared in Haiku Journal, 6S, Main Street Rag, Ibbetson Street, and other publications. Her first chapbook, Topless — a collaboration by Eileen and poets Deborah Mead and Kara Provost — was a finalist in the 2010 MSR Editor's Choice Chapbook Series, available from mainstreetrag.com.
Readers should also know that Eileen is crazy about her teenage daughter, Maeve McCluskey, and Mani, their adopted dog.
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2014 Update: At long last, Eileen has written Divorce Haiku II, the follow up to her incredibly popular & laser-perceptive 2011, Divorce Haiku.
Wednesday evening, April 23, 2014, Eileen will read at the Bryant University Poetry Month celebration being held Bello Hall from 6:00-7:00pm. Eileen will be joined by OPP Poets, David Dragone, Lauri Burke, Ira Schaeffer and Kim Baker. Come join us.
(Photo by Jeremy C. Fox)
► Eileen's micro-chapbooks & selected poems are available below.
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Origami Micro-chapook |
Selected Poem(s) |
Cover Art: dreamtime.com
With hope for divorcing and divorced
parents, that you find comfort, and new joy.
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{mooblock=One: Before and After the Hearing}
At the old courthouse,
light descends through frosted glass drifts, mingling with dust.
You stood there and lied
to lawyers, the court, to me. I spit on your lies. I vacuum your lies. They fly into the absence of your decency.
I scrub your falsehoods
from these floors where you once walked. I wash you away.
Agony, waiting:
Will he win alimony, or the book be thrown?
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Eileen McCluskey © 2014
{/mooblock} |
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{mooblock=One}
Tornado of blood
may you be gentled, strange beast that tears earth from earth. • Eileen McCluskey © 2011 {/mooblock} |
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{mooblock=One}
Flat tube of toothpaste,
bland icon of our conflicts thrown out with a sigh.
Your ring dropped to snow.
I didn’t feel its absence; just a round, dull pain. •
Eileen McCluskey © 2011
{/mooblock} |
