On a Turning Wing

Paddy Bushe's latest collection of poems opens with a stirring suite on music and art, seeing them not as rarefied experiences but as fundamental and nourishing encounters for both their makers and their audience. The distinction between here and elsewhere is blurred, and the playing of an Irish piper seems echoed by that of other musicians in far-flung parts where the poet's enthusiasm for travel and hill-walking takes him. The transition from such open, light-filled spaces to the more uncertain areas of Irish political life makes perfect sense in Bushe's work, the poet's freedom bringing with it a responsibility to engage. And Bushe's defence of a local arts centre is lifted far above what might have been a parochial dispute into a passionate argument for access to the arts beyond favouritism or political interference. On a Turning Wing contains some of Bushe's finest sketches of the natural world, as well as touching lyrics on the birth of a grandchild and the joy and consolation of companionship and love.