The Tide - Poetry

“Larry Stapleton brought his environmentalist’s eye to the diverse coast of Wexford, Kerry, the Shannon Estuary, and Sligo in lyrics that celebrate sky and seascape, lagoon, sand-dune, woodland, river, lake and pre-historic site. His intense intimacy with the natural world and his attention to geo-diverse places, and the mysterious processes of nature, inspired poems that are vivid, and memorable. His naming of birds and wildflowers, and his preoccupation with place echoes Michael Longley. Whether he speaks of the life of a turlough, an ancient monument, a ship-wreck, or the loss of his beloved, his poems in The Tide move easily from the local to the global, from place to planet and rhyme to song.” - Catherine Phil MacCarthy