Nature Writings Win Prize for Poet

Nature Writings Win Prize for Poet
By Melissa Warner
Publication: The Irish American Post
Issue Date: Spring 2007/ Vol. 7 Issue 3
Section: Feature Articles
Word Count: 867

Seán Lysaght has been writing since he was a teen, setting out to produce lyrical poetry that combines his love of composition with his love of nature.

For these successful efforts, Lysaght received the 11th Annual Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the Center for Irish Studies. The $5,000 award was presented on April 13 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The O'Shaughnessy Award is named after recently retired Lawrence O'Shaughnessy, who was an English professor at St. Thomas from 1948 to 1950 and who served on the institution’s board of trustees.

Lysaght grew up in Limerick. His father was a book dealer who ran his business from home, selling mostly Irish literature and historical works. However, Lysaght found it important to separate himself from these genres and found himself reading modern European writing. Yet he eventually fell back into Irish literature.

One influential book was Wintering Out by Seamus Heaney. Lysaght picked up a copy at a bookstall in Doneraile during a writer's festival. When writing his The Clare Island Survey, Lysaght often turned to Heaney’s pieces for inspiration while working on his bird poems.

Lysaght studied Anglo-Irish Literature at the University College-Dublin. He took a break to study in Geneva and spent time abroad in Switzerland and Germany. In 1983, Lysaght started writing again when his post-graduate studies were completed. He was homesick and said writing was the only cure.

It must have been what the muse doctor ordered. In 1985, Lysaght won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Festival. Soon after, his first collection of poetry, Noah's Irish Ark, was published. The follow-up, The Clare Island Survey, was released in 1991 by The Gallery Press. The collection was nominated for The Irish Times-Aer Lingus Poetry Award. The poems focus on the West Ireland landscape and seaside.

From 1990 to 1994, Lysaght lectured English at St. Patrick's College in Maynooth. During this time, he wrote Robert Lloyd Praeger: The Life of a Naturalist and received his doctorate. In 1998, he released the collection, Scarecrow, followed by Erris in 2002. Scarecrow is adapted from his early fieldwork notes and sketches. Erris focuses on the notion of nature-as-myth compared to his normal nature-as-landscape.

Lysaght has always tried to incorporate nature into his poems. "I have always been an outdoors type of person," he said, "At one time, I wanted to be a naturalist." He considered himself a nature poet, but felt that niche felt too restricting.

When Lysaght is not writing and has time to relax, he enjoys fishing. "Here in Mayo, we have great salmon water, and some wild, uncrowded rivers. That's my heartland," he said. Many times after a day of angling, he sits down and writes about his excursions.

Lysaght currently lives in Westport, Co. Mayo, with his wife, Jessica, his son, Seamus, and the family dog, Homer. He teaches at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.

Lysaght generally writes alone but meets for readings with Peter Fallon, his editor at The Gallery Press. "Peter steers the work very slowly and carefully," he said. "He has saved me from a lot of my own impatience and extravagance."

Looking at poets today, Lysaght did not think there was a certain mold. Writers come from every walk of life, whether teachers, farmers, homemakers or others. But it is hard for people to make a living merely as a poet, he admitted. Although there is a supportive Irish arts council and many festivals and readings, it is difficult to wait for poets to make money, he pointed out.

"No poet should complain about not making money from poetry," Lysaght continued, however. "That's not what you got into it for in the first place."

Lysaght has an audience but he did not feel as connected to his fans as he wished. To get a better feel for the audience and to broaden his circle, he plans on more readings and travel.

"There are a few hundred people out there who notice what's going on and pick up the new books," he said.

Lysaght said he was honored to receive the O'Shaughnessy Award and considered it a great encouragement to his writing. To receive the award, no one has to apply, nor write prospectuses or cost-benefit analyses.

"It's an unexpected and free gift," Lysaght said.

America is a great place for poetry, especially Irish poetry, he added. Receiving awards gives artists an idea of what they and their writing represent.

"I'll try to answer that, and maybe leave some of it open because hopefully there will be more writing to come," Lysaght concluded.

Eamonn Wall, a poet and president of the American Conference for Irish Studies, has said that "as readers, we need to pay attention to the work of Seán Lysaght, who, in his ability to bring natural science and lyric poetry into free play, provides Irish poetry with a new direction. Devoid of shallow romanticism and Celtic Revival myth, we experience in his poetry a vision of a living, lively, natural and deeply resonant Irish place."

Previous winners of the O'Shaughnessy Award have been Eavan Boland, John F. Deane, Peter Sirr, Louis de Paor, Moya Cannon, Frank Orsmby, Thomas McCarthy, Michael Coady, Kerry Hardie and Dennis O’Driscoll.