Oceans of poetry with Mary O'Malley

In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo's The Writing Life, Irish poet Mary O'Malley speaks with Jean Nordhaus, and opens with her mythological-based poem "The Boning Hall," from her collection of the same name, which addresses Adrienne Rich's classic poem "Diving into the Wreck.” The eldest daughter of a Connamara fisherman, with nine younger siblings, O’Malley is focused not only on “the mythos of the sea,” she says, but “the purity of the language.” They discuss writing in the Irish language first, and the English language, outside of the culture of Ireland. “There is a whole other world, past, culture you know based on a language you know imperfectly. But your bones know it, your ears know it.” O’Malley also reads “The Wound,” “The Shape of Saying, “The Man of Aran,” “My role was that of an observer,” about the Bloody Sunday protest slayings and “Billie,” about Billie Holliday. For more information about HoCoPoLitSo's live or taped programs, or to donate to support those programs, visit www.hocopolitso.org.