Bio
Conor Kelly was born in Dublin (1952) and spent his adult life teaching in a school in the Dublin suburbs. He retired to a small village in the Charente region of France to play boules, sample the local cuisine and run his twitter site, @poemtoday, dedicated to the short poem.
Conor Kelly
A Writer Blocked
Sometimes the spirit strains as if it thought
mere words enough to mitigate this cruel
divisive search for metaphoric fuel.
For years the wood I gathered lay unwrought.
There were some months of silence. Then deceit
kindled the driftwood through each ingrained flaw
as driving home through Wicklow once I saw
the forest blazing, figures in retreat.
I sit in a café in Parnell Square
spreading these lies on tattered envelopes.
A waitress takes my order. From the wall
a jukebox helps accentuate despair
while spinning out my studied teenage hopes.
Sometimes the spirit strains beyond recall.