A Literary Arts Journal
Seán Mac Falls is an Irish poet. Belonging to no group or movement and operating outside of literary fashions, his brand of symbolist poetry can, at first reading, appear difficult. His use of allusion, startling diction and subtle punning display submerged metaphor in his work. The overall effect is a fresh implementation of Imagism. He has published five books of poetry and several chapbooks.
His first collection of poems, 20 Poems (2001) was praised, first from Oxford University don, John Carey, who compared the poet to W. B. Yeats and later by Yale critic Harold Bloom. Several of the poems were Pushcart Prize nominations and were reprinted in major UK magazines such as Agenda, The London Magazine and Stand Magazine. He published a second book, entitled The Blue Falcon, in 2005. He lives in Port Angeles, Washington.
Lovers Shy
The looking at you
Destroys my mask
And a sun ignites
Heating the blood
That was buried
In window flesh,
Slits break, lid of eyes,
The souls’ shutter.
The breathings with you
Lays me asunder
To bedrooms starry
Where faith succumbs
Only to be reborn
In spooning after love,
The fae body spirals
In positions foetal.
The touching with us
Rakes the ghost moon
Which lies within truths
Dark as reddest rose
Rising in thorny stalk
Where treasure is sunk,
In cavities of chest,
Beat hearts shudder.
Leaf
In the leaf there lies—
A bold anatomy, knowing,
Veined structure exploding
Like a star, pale flash ignites
Turning into burnished gold,
Starting as dear light, loosed
Spark, coming into blessed
Being, ever before even old
Gender, a little hand growing
Open, set free before stark,
Innocence, actual as truth,
As an offering to the sun.
Faizah Ahmad Rajput is a visual artist and poet living in Los Angeles, Ca. She is currently working on her first book of poetry at Otis College of Art and Design, where she is as an MFA candidate in writing.
The background drawing here is part of a larger body of work, a series of one-minute freehand sketches of Faizah's sleeping experiences next to her person. The drawings will accompany the dream poems, which are the resulting products of those nights.
She is on most social media platforms.
If you are interested in collaborations, you can contact her at