LIAM DUFFY

WHAT IS (PART OF) YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE?

A major part of my recession experience is that of the Irish narrative returning to emigration. The youth of whole villages has disappeared and I know it is becoming easier to count the friends who have left rather than those who have stayed. The direness of the situation is amplified by the trend for those who leave to be those with skills and abilities; this leaves the country with diminished opportunities to get back on its feet.


A fountain in the square of Liam Duffy's home town, Galway. Around it written in chalk are the names of over a hundred people who have emigrated. A student activist group called Free Education for Everyone or FEE, in which the poet is involved, collected the names and wrote them out as an act of remembrance to highlight the lack of opportunities in Ireland, particularly for young people.


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HOW HAS THE GREAT RECESSION AFFECTED YOUR POETRY?

My writing has become more critical of the elements of society that brought about this crisis and how they depict themselves as being innately present and necessary in society. But it has also turned its focus on the parts of society that exist despite crisis and also against the crisis--the day to day processes we engage in to get the most out of life.


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PLEASE SHARE A POEM(S) ADDRESSING YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE:

Deflation


Even the devil's redundant-

the wind cries:

the tea is cold.


Burnt toast

And greasy frys-

even the devil's redundant,


his knife's coated

in butter and crumbs-

his tea cold.


Sales of slippers have doubled,

he read in the newspapers-

even the devil's redundant


so the church closed;

he could sleep in Sundays-

the tea gone cold


before it’s even poured

the heat stolen by leaky windows-

even the devil's redundant

and his tea has gone cold.


("Deflation" first appeared in A Hudson View, Spring 2010)

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ABOUT THE POET:

Liam Duffy is a poet who grew up and studied in Galway. He is now compiling an Artistic Atlas of Galway, studying Urban studies and working towards his first collection of poetry. He has recently been published on the Upstart blog, the GloomCupboard and has work forthcoming in the special Irish issue of the U.S. magazine Prairie Schooner, and has also read at the West Cork Literary Festival in Ireland as part of a reading dubbed: "Irish Poets: A New Generation."




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