Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

February 1, 1972

On Holles Street
at Merrion Square
women in windows
of the maternity hospital
stuck their heads out
and joined to sing
A Nation Once Again
with the 7000 gathered there.
Each about to give birth,
or had just given birth.
Petrol bomb along the balcony
devoured the bloody embassy
until Burn, Baby, Burn
drowned out the rosary.

Kevin Gallagher is a poet and publisher living in Greater Boston.  His new book, Diving at the Moon, will be published by Spuyten Duyvil Press in 2026.  Previous books are And Yet it Moves (MadHat, 2023), and the Wild Goose (Loom, 2022).  Gallagher edits spoKe, a Boston-based annual of poetry and poetics.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx