Farewell to The Body Electric
In response to works chosen from The Niland Collection for The Body Electric exhibition, the following poems have been written in a masterclass last weekend with writer Tara Bergin. The unusual and varied responses are both delightful and intriguing.

The Táin, The Morrígan By Louis Le Brocquy (1969)
Observe the I
From stone
Revealed
The stark
Dark crow
You see
I am
A mirror of your soul
Peer within
The watching eye
And seek
The truth
Before you die.
by Marguerite Quinlan
In response to The Táin, The Morrígan by Louis Le Brocquy

Bussin
It’s bussin,
Say it mom – bussin!
With utter glee, I grind my heel into the hot tarmac
Twist, squish, swish
With a wiggle, my heel sinks deeper into the sticky tar
as the liquid black bubbles up
Steel arch, glinting in the sun
It’s bussin, I say, bussin
Footnote - ‘bussin’ is a slang word used on TikTok. Meaning 'very good’ or ‘delicious’, it’s popular in online videos and memes.
By Marie-Louise Blaney
In response to Stiletto, by Dorothy Cross

Free the Frazzle
It is beyond time
To clear my mind
Of the detritus
Gathered over the years
Wasteful
Weighing me down
Naked
I present myself
Mustering strength
I bend my knee
Straighten my back
To free
My frazzled mind
Boom
I explode
Sunder weight
Of childhood
Rituals and ruination
Self
Forfeited within flock
Flashback
Rumble of rosary
Insidious intemperance
Unloved
Unappreciated
Unnoticed
Boom
I am back
I reclaim my state
Of being
To love
To appreciate
To notice
My self
My place
My frazzled mind
by Bláithín Gallagher
In response to My Mind is Frazzled by Janet Mullarney

Vanishing Point
Remembrance of light
three figures disappearing
I, love and I,
favourite, love, and I
dissolving in the memory
of rain in the summertime
A late work
a gift
and later
again a gift
Elusive about process yet
the brush-stroke-thick
impasto presence
lets us know
you were there
and keeps you
with us here
between the almost sky
and the fresh echoes
of you
and us
by Patrick Karl Curley
In response to Leaving The Far Point by Jack B Yeats