The poems in Michael Durack’s Flip Sides are set, for the most part, in Ireland’s rural Mid-West with occasional ventures, physically or imaginatively, to Dublin, London, Wales, Amsterdam and the United States. Childhood memories, rural traditions, vanished landscapes, love and loss, sport and music – all the familiar themes from his previous collection, Where It Began – reappear, and the mundane and the surreal lie cheek by jowl. Poems are “interrogated”, Sean Bean morphs into the Shan Van Vocht of Irish folk-lore, a suburban rail commuter experiences Groundhog Day and The Rosary is interrupted by the Great Train Robbery. Flip Sides could be compared to a juke box which, as often as not, plays the B-Sides of the 45 rpm singles, providing the reader with a series of unexpected treats.
Michael Durack was born on a farm near Birdhill, Co. Tipperary. He was educated at Nenagh CBS and UCD and worked as a teacher for 36 years. His work has been published in journals such as The Blue Nib, Skylight 47, The Cafe Review, The Stony Thursday Book and Poetry Ireland Review as well as airing on local and national radio. With his brother, Austin, he collaborates on a programme of poetry and guitar music, and they have produced two albums, The Secret Chord and Going Gone. His memoir in prose and poems, Saved to Memory: Lost to View, was issued in 2016, and in September 2017 his first poetry collection, Where It Began, was published by Revival Press. Michael now lives in Ballina, Co. Tipperary
