Carlow poet awarded third place at Red Line Book Festival
Poet Maresa Sheehan at the poetry and awards night of the Red Line Book Festival, Dublin
MARESA Sheehan’s poem observes that after a diagnosis, sometimes “it’s just down to luck”.
Maresa, originally from Cork and now living outside of Bagenalstown, has just won third place for her poem in the recent Red Line Book Festival in Dublin.
She has been writing poetry for 20 years on and off. “You kind of have to do it, there’s a bit of inevitability about it”, she said of her need to write.
She finds herself writing in spurts, jotting down lines when she wakes up in the morning, or pulling in on the side of the road.
She was inspired to write after hearing Donal Ryan speak at the Borris Festival of Writing this summer. He said that when you get a medical diagnosis, sometimes it’s just down to luck, which Sheehan found “quite consoling”. The sense of peaceful acceptance “really struck a chord”, she said.
In the poem, which she wrote during autumn, she just wanted to “wish people luck, to say you can do no more, don’t feel you have to fight this. Sometimes you just got a bad roll of the dice. I just wish you could sit in this little wishbone.” Sheehan wanted to get across the idyllic “beauty of an autumn orchard” when “the rush of the summer” is over.
She explained: “The idea of sitting back, just relaxing, saying it’s ok, let the luck do something for you. Kick back your legs and fling back your hair.”
Her superstitions are evident in the poem too. “There are more things that we don’t understand than what we understand”, she said laughing.
She has been published in the forthcoming edition of literary journal and was a recipient of the Art Links Bursary last year, working with Jessica Traynor.
“Fundamentally [writing poetry is] a solo thing, but it’s really useful to get criticism … it re-energises you, gives you more enthusiasm,” said Maresa.
