Pit Lullabies

Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin in 1984 and is a poet, essayist and librettist. Her debut collection, Liffey Swim (Dedalus Press, 2014), was shortlisted for the Strong/Shine Award and in 2016 was named one of the best poetry debuts of the past five years on Bustle.com. Her second collection, The Quick, was a 2019 Irish Times poetry choice. A Place of Pointed Stones, a pamphlet commissioned by Offaly County Council, was published by The Salvage Press in 2021. Her third collection, Pit Lullabies, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2022. It is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.She has received commissions for poems from BBC Radio 4, The Arts Council of Ireland, The Model Gallery Sligo, The Salvage Press, VISUAL Carlow, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council and The Poetry Programme (RTÉ), and awards including the Hennessy New Writer of the Year, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary, and the Listowel Poetry Prize. In 2016, she was named one of the ‘Rising Generation’ of poets by Poetry Ireland.She reviews poetry for RTÉ’s Arena, and for Poetry Ireland Review, and has held residencies including the Yeats Society, Sligo, and Carlow College. She is an inaugural Creative Fellow of UCD, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing in 2008, and is Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Writer in Residence for 2021-22. She is poetry editor at Banshee.

Visionary, luminous and haunted, Jessica Traynor’s poems are home to a host of compelling characters: witches, changelings, the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen. In The Quick, even the grotesque is rendered with subtle delicacy – a woman whose “lungs fold like an origami bird”. These poems will give you goose-bumps.

• 11 Pit Lullaby12 Megalodon13 Anatomy Scan14 In the Birthing Room15 Metaphysical Breast Milk Poem16 Ophelia in Ballybough19 Midwinter20 Pit Lullaby II21 A Plea for the Sanctification of the Ditches of Ireland23 Child you cut me open24 What It Takes25 Patchwork Quilt26 If You Can Tame a Wildcat, You Can Raise a Baby27 Pit Lullaby III28 On Poisons37 Pit Lullaby IV38 In the Wrong Place39 Forecast41 On Plastics43 Supermoon Trifecta45 Walrus46 Men are Talking47 Pit Lullaby V48 An Island Sings56 Pit Lullaby VI57 The Signs63 Pit Lullaby VII64 Nureyev in Dublin66 Holidaying with Dad During the Divorce67 Dad Cars69 Pit Lullaby VIII70 Milk Teeth71 Lessons72 Zodiac73 Rock Pool74 Turbulence75 Pit Lullaby IX77 Hungry Ghost80 Bilbea’s Response81 Lock Years83 Onion Poem84 In the Bathroom Showroom85 Hunting Lions86 Hawthorn87 Night Run88 Pit Lullaby X89 Lullaby91 Notes93 Acknowledgements