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Paul Perry



Map lover

              for Aoife


you will gaze
at a map on a wall
a map of intersecting streets

to a city
you have or have
not before visited that may or may not

exist
you will gaze
inspect and study fondly

the oldest
and rarest of maps
of Dublin too your city

for hours
and with the same
concentration you lavish on

your music
or me because you
will look to my eyes and hands

to my lips
my body your fingers
tapping out a cadenza onto my spine

as if I too
were a map to
the conversation of our bodies

and then
bless you you will
with all the consummation

of a map lover
always and forever
find your way to me




©2005 by Paul Perry



Paul Perry was born in Dublin in 1972. He won the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University, and has been a James Michener Fellow of Creative Writing at The University of Miami, and a C. Glenn Cambor Fellow of Poetry at The University of Houston. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, TLS and The Best American Poetry 2000. He served as Writer in Residence for Co. Longford, from 2000-2002. In 2002, he won the Listowel Prize for Poetry. He’s also been writer in residence on Rathlin Island. Currently, he is Writer in Residence for the University of Ulster. His first book, The Drowning of the Saints, was published in 2003 to critical acclaim. Wintering, his second book, will be published by Dedalus Press in 2006. See more of his work at his Web site.


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