Seamus Cashman

There are some gems here, particularly pieces by Paul Muldoon and other talented poets -- but there are some lame ducks as well. The trouble with a big collection like this (there must be at least 100 poems in here, and no repeat authors) is that even Ireland runs out of great poets eventually, and even great poets aren't necessarily all that good at writing for kids. Seamus Heaney's contribution was good of course but could have been in any collection, which made it seem out of place here, but other contributions are so juvenile that one wonders whether the author might actually be a child (which would be interesting, but one hopes that the editors would provide a heads up or something). Definitely worth reading, and reading aloud, but any revisiting will be done selectively. PS: Some of the poems are in Irish, which I can't read, so I'm only commenting on those in English.… (mere)