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Poetry by Paul O'Mahony

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Favourite Quotes

I never went to college — I don’t believe in college for writers. The thing is very dangerous. I believe too many professors are too opinionated & too snobbish & too intellectual, & the intellect is a great danger to creativity … because you begin to rationalize & make up reasons for things, instead of staying with your own basic truth — who you are, what you are, what you want to be. I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for over 25 years now, which reads “Don’t think!” You must never think at the typewriter — you must feel. Your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway.
– Ray Bradbury

A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves…
– Walt Whitman

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
– Mary Oliver

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem…
– Walt Whitman

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs…
– Wilfred Owen

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard …
– Oscar Wilde

A book must be an axe which smashes the frozen sea within us.
– Franz Kafka

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
– Emily Dickinson

There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.
– Fleur Adcock

Recent Posts

Favourite Quotes

“We are meaning making machines”
– Paul O’Mahony

“I never went to college — I don’t believe in college for writers. The thing is very dangerous. I believe too many professors are too opinionated & too snobbish & too intellectual, & the intellect is a great danger to creativity … because you begin to rationalize & make up reasons for things, instead of staying with your own basic truth — who you are, what you are, what you want to be. I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for over 25 years now, which reads “Don’t think!” You must never think at the typewriter — you must feel. Your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway.”
– Ray Bradbury

“A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves…”
– Walt Whitman

“I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”
– Mary Oliver

“Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem…”
– Walt Whitman

“If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs…”
– Wilfred Owen

“And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard …”
– Oscar Wilde

“A book must be an axe which smashes the frozen sea within us.”
– Franz Kafka

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
– Emily Dickinson

“There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.”
– Fleur Adcock

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Category: poetry

Perhaps

perhaps an earthquake —

a butterfly tastes the wind

jellyfish abide

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Posted on September 23, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags butterfly, earthquake, haiku, jellyfish, windLeave a comment on Perhaps

Autumn yellow

the yellowing leaves

an October robin sings

morning air grows cold

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Posted on September 23, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories poetryTags autumn, leavesLeave a comment on Autumn yellow

Reinvigorate

Jumping spider down

yearns to reinvigorate

a rain drop reflects

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Posted on September 23, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags haiku, Jumping spider, Reflection, Reinvigorate, spiderLeave a comment on Reinvigorate

Stock

stock grazing grassland

cow pats baking, sun blazing

dung beetle rolls ball

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Posted on September 19, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags ball, beetle, cow Pat, dung, grassland, haiku, stock, sunLeave a comment on Stock

Synthesis

toxic milkweed leaf 

a caterpillar feeding —

synthesis unfolds

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Posted on September 18, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags Caterpillar, leaf, Milkweed, SynthesisLeave a comment on Synthesis

Collide

cloud pulls the curtain

the bat and the mole collide –

moon and stars conspire

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Posted on September 16, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories poetryLeave a comment on Collide

Style

style of the peacock

a child runs to feed beauty

a bunch of black grapes

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Posted on September 15, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags black, child, grapes, peacockLeave a comment on Style

Flinch

no flinch from rhino

oxpecker drops on its back

the guard has alighted.

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Posted on September 15, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags oxpecker, rhinoLeave a comment on Flinch

Rein

a wild horse hungry

prickly pear cactus beyond – 

the rein of winter

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Posted on September 15, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags cactus, haiku, horse, hungry, rein, wild, winterLeave a comment on Rein

Gaza

Gaza in red ashes

Goliath merciless war

thunderstorm hailstones

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Posted on September 5, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories poetryLeave a comment on Gaza

Arbitrary

arbitrary bees

brushing pollen from crocus

delightful saffron

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Posted on September 3, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags arbitrary, bee, bees, pollen, saffronLeave a comment on Arbitrary

Elude

stick insects elude

the army of hungry frogs

camouflaging moon

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Posted on September 2, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags camouflage, elude, frog, hungry, stick-insectLeave a comment on Elude

Yearn

Clothes moths yearn for silk

eating from a favourite dress,

eggs about to hatch

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Posted on September 1, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags dress, moth, silk, yearnLeave a comment on Yearn

Jovial

twitcher seeks dunnocks


ruffling hedges at moonrise


jovial: overhead

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Posted on September 1, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories haiku, poetryTags bird, dunnock, jovial, twitcherLeave a comment on Jovial

Shape

she admires herself


notices shape of the figure


smiles to herself

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Posted on September 1, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories poetryTags figure, shapeLeave a comment on Shape

Abject

cool autumn evening
bald eagle seizes the smolt
abject, the osprey

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Posted on August 19, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags autumn, eagle, osprey, smoltLeave a comment on Abject

Erratic

an erratic rock
defies the lashing rainfall,
ancient shards withstand

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Posted on August 19, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories haiku, poetryTags Bashō, Burren, erratic, rain, rock, shardsLeave a comment on Erratic

Pummel

two brown bears pummel
vying for powerful mate –
salmon slip upstream

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Posted on August 17, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, haiku, poetryTags bear, mate, pummel, salmon, upstreamLeave a comment on Pummel

Ladybird

spotted ladybird 

swallows dewdrops, chews aphids

– August moon fading  

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Posted on August 16, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories poetryTags aphid, August, dewdrop, ladybird, moonLeave a comment on Ladybird

Grumpy

breakfast, grumpy mood

after a night without sleep

August sun rising

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Posted on August 14, 2025Author Paul O'MahonyCategories exercise, poetryTags August, Breakfast, grumpy, night, sleep, sunLeave a comment on Grumpy

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