Campbell, Siobhan

Ireland, (b. 1962)

I’ll tell you my poem about killing a pig

  1. I was sent home when they had it planned,
  2. to get on the dinner, boil the ham
  3. while they slit its throat, not a pig at all
  4. but the feisty ram. The squeal of him
  5. in the kill shed. A burst of blood
  6. over their heads. They came up the lane
  7. when he was dead and always forgot I
  8. was not there, the story never mine to tell
  9. because I’m a girl and girls don’t kill.

© Siobhan Campbell. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing and Traditions, Vol. 5, Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions. Edited by Angela Bourke, et. al. New York: New York University Press (2002).

About the Poet:

Siobhan Campbell, Ireland, (b. 1962), is a poet, editor, critic and social researcher. Her research of creative writing as a social practice has let her to investigate the value of expressing creativity in palliative care.

With an MA from University College Dublin and a PhD from Lancaster University, she also pursued post-graduate study at NYU and the New School, New York. She joined The Open University, Dept. of English from Kingston University London, where she was Associate Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing and Course Director MA and MFA, Creative Writing.

Author of six books of poetry and co-editor of Eavan Boland: Inside History, the 2016 book of essays on the work of Eavan Boland, Siobhan Campbell’s work has received awards in the National Poetry Competition and the Troubadour International Competition and is the recipient of an Arts Council award and the Templar Poetry Prize. She has lived in Dublin, San Francisco, London and New York City. [DES-01/22]

Additional information:

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