Congratulations to UCC Creative Writing graduate Niamh Twomey  who had two poems recently published in the Irish Independent.

Niamh Twomey is a writer from Co Clare, currently living in northern France. Her work has most recently appeared in the Ireland Chair of Poetry Commemorative Anthology, as well as journals such as Crannóg Magazine and Boyne Berries. She holds a BA in English and French and an MA in creative writing, both from University College Cork.

 

Niamh, pictured below reading at the West Cork Literary Festival in 2019.

Gift

after Anna Héloïse (Gérard) Matisse, mother of Henri Matisse

 

My mother bore me Cadmium yellow

to brighten my sick room;

Burnt Sienna, Cobalt blue

like the sky above Le Cateau-Cambrésis.

Vermillion, Carmine, red

as blood bursting through skin.

Rose Madder like the depths of a pearl.

That day a seed was planted

somewhere among the beets.

All at once a kernel broke,

roots plunged heart-wards,

a Milori green shoot

pierced the canvas of my world

and I began to paint.