A Man Is Only As Good
160 pp, Oct. 2017
ISBN 9780993172618
www.dedaluspress.com
His poems are flexible enough to lift off the page.
POETRY IRELAND REVIEW
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A Man Is Only As Good is a pocket-sized introduction to the poetry of Pat Boran, drawing on five previous full-length collections and including the late Dennis O’Driscoll’s prose introduction to the poems.

Described as “a writer of great tenderness and lyricism” (
Agenda, UK), Boran makes heartfelt, deceptively simple poems that are at once “local and international, personal and scientific, full of wisdom and wry humor” (Irish Literary Supplement, USA).



‘A MAN IS ONLY AS GOOD’

A man is only as good
as what he says to a dog
when he has to get up out of bed
in the middle of a wintry night
because some damned dog has been barking;

and he goes and opens the door
in his vest and boxer shorts
and there on the pock-marked wasteground
called a playing field out front
he finds the mutt with one paw

raised in expectation
and an expression that says: Thank God
for a minute there I thought
there was no one awake but me
in this goddamned town.



‘A Man Is Only As Good’ is published by Orange Crate Books and distributed by Dedalus Press. Also available on Amazon Kindle.

- See more at:
www.dedaluspress.com