Dark Pool: Poems 1994-2004Taking its title from the root meaning of Dublin, Ben Howard's fifth collection of poems probes the provenance of naming. Ranging in locale from eastern Iowa to County Clare, these poems endeavour to call the things of this world by their 'rightful names'. Whether the object of contemplation be a vanished Dublin bookshop, a bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln's hands, the month of February, or a son's twenty first birthday, Howard's poems seek wholeness

your umbrella

you didn't know

he has returned whenever possible to the home of his birth to give readings and poetry-writing workshops

laid out for him to ërescueí through his work

We want to document ñ chiefly in translated poems

and to his relationships with Carrington

Nasser al-Dhaheri

and the University of Ulster

Bernard Howells

translated by Stefan Tobler

All the contributors

Interview by Eskandar Habache