By Paul Bregazzi Two women make their way from the field above the garden wending their way down the slope. He places his thumb over the spout of the spigot, fluming the water, bending to see its run-off, the carry of some dust, the soakage into the gravel layer. The women trill themselves through the […]
Keith
Lapis Lazuli
By Matt Kirkham You call me outside to hear the bats and I find I can no longer hear the bats. They flicker from the outstretched sycamores through a world of rarefied speech normalised, their accents no longer open to me. The clouds above the light-spilling city, above its flat streets, above the mountains beyond […]
James and Jack Travers
By Rachael Hegarty James Travers’s Deposition and Statement at the Coroner’s Court 02.10.03 I am James Travers, brother of the deceased, Thomas (Jack) Travers. Jack worked for himself, supplying wood shavings for chicken farms. On the 17th of May 1974 I heard the news of the bombings in Dublin. I drove home to Monaghan. On […]
Cholera
By Joseph Woods No sooner had the President been sworn in when cholera stalked the high-density neighbourhoods of the capital and, with medieval aplomb scythed a score and more. An early act of grace by the President was to pay passage for the former First Lady and adversary, to attend her mother’s funeral. Five-thousand air-miles […]
Wicker to Silver
by Mary Montague Provided there’s a maximum of three, vulpids can be safely carried in wicker baskets. But young cubs are best. Certainly no more than one of the elect. In containment, they gain quiet dignity. Fox melds with willow. Sallow with russet. Bracken in early spring before the green shoots begin to bud. Now […]
Cyphers award given to the Syrian poet Maram al-Masri
The Cyphers Award is offered to the Syrian poet Maram Al-Masri, to whom this number of Cyphers pays a special tribute. Maram al-Masri writes in Arabic and French; her work explores the agony and the adventure of exile and the sharp edges of the female condition in an especially humane and piercing voice. From time to […]
Last poems by Macdara Woods
Last Poems and Two Tales from County Meath Macdara Woods was one of the founding editors of Cyphers and was a pillar of the magazine until his death in 2018. His wife Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin found eleven poems, in almost finished state, on his computer, and she has done some minimal tidying with the help […]
Cyphers 89 in the shops
The bookshops are open and the latest issue of Cyphers is now available. With stories of migration and family by Margarita Meklina and Orla Murphy, poems from Ireland and the world, this issue is an opportunity of imaginary travel. It includes a selection of poetry translated from Russian, from Pushkin to the present. If you […]
Cyphers 89
Cyphers 89 has arrived. We are posting now to contributors and subscribers and will be landing in bookshops as soon as they open. This issue features thirty Irish and international poets, with a special section on contemporary Russian poetry in translation. Narratives of migration by Orla Murphy and Margarita Meklina are also reflections on families, […]
Cyphers is alive
We are working away in spite of the pandemic crisis. Cyphers 89 will appear shortly, edited by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin with assistance from Natasha Cuddington and Léan Ní Chuilleanáin. Contributors and subscribers will receive copies by post, and we will be there when the bookshops reopen. Thanks to Ainín Ní Bhroin our administrator who is […]