Still Life - Softcover

In Still Life, Ciaran Carson guides us through centuries of art and around the Belfast Waterworks where he walks with his wife, Deirdre; into the chemo ward; into memory and the allusive quicksilver of his mind, always bidding us to look carefully at the details of a painter&;s canvas, as well as the sunlight of day. This master translator chooses here to translate the painter&;s brush with the poet&;s pen, finding resemblances, echoes, and parallels. A thorn becomes the nib of a writer&;s pencil and the pointed pipette of a chemo drip entering the poet&;s vein. Yet, Deirdre stands as much in the center of these poems as do the paintings. At times, the two seem to escape into the paintings themselves: &;Standing by the high farmstead in the upper left of the picture&;there!&;in a patch of / sunlight. &; They could be us, out for a walk.&; Balancing the desire to escape into the stillness and permanence of art with the insistent yearning to be fully present in each moment, Carson reminds us&;&;Look! &; There!&;&;that in the midst of illness, even in the face of death, there is, still, life.