The Turn for Ithaca

In The Turn for Ithaca, his 11th collection of poems, Gerard Smyth further explores his perennial subject of memory, its mysteries and revelations. In ‘My Father’s House’, one of many poems from the land of his youth, he writes, ‘One day I turned to look and it was gone’, the disappearance, as ever for Smyth, an invitation to go deeper. Elsewhere, during a Zoom call, he is reminded of books “borrowed but never returned”, while another poem about a broken phone box imagines “all the old conversations under the dust”. Voices of loved ones, teachers and other poets populate this book whose “turn” is very much part of an onward journey.