Nathanael O’Reilly reading at the Markwell launch of Separation Blues: Poems 1994-2024. Photograph by Martin Kent & Jean Kent.

Separation Blues: Poems 1994-2024 by Nathanael O’Reilly, Flying Island Books 2024, was launched by Anne Casey at the Poets Picnic, Markwell on 8 December 2024.

Hello everyone. It is a great honour and joy to be with you here today. Heartfelt thanks to our inimitable host and team, and to Nathanael O’Reilly for the great privilege of launching his glorious new book, ‘Separation Blues’.

Somewhat ashamedly I confess I first met Nat via social media – that was before the various oligarchs’ nefarious plots were revealed. Nefarious is the least Nat O’Reilly-like word I know. I was blessed to do a book tour of Ireland with Nat in 2018. What I learnt from my earliest interactions with him is that Nat is one of the most generous poets you will meet. And I mean this not only in terms of his support to other poets, including myself – and to the art of poetry in the world – but in how he explores and expresses his craft.

As I am sure you know, Nat is originally from Warrnambool, and is an Assistant Professor of English in the United States where he lives with his partner and their daughter, whose beloved presence is felt in this book. Nat is also the Poetry Editor for the prestigious Antipodes journal. He has edited numerous books, amassed a swag of awards and commendations. Some 350 of his poems have appeared in more than 130 journals and anthologies, published in 15 countries.

Nat’s poetry is highly polished, subtle and filmic in its detail. ‘Separation Blues’ is, I believe, Nat’s thirteenth book – and what a gorgeous production it is! Within its pages – which span more than four decades – you will find his characteristic precision and concision; powerful opening lines and dramatic closes; razor-sharp observation; clipped phrases; as well as skillfully painted portraits of people, places and eras.

Here, you will learn of his great loves – gained, lost, and those most closely held. There are elegant elegies – to cherished friends, family, places and times; hymns to eroding ecology and loss of innocence; casually dropped epiphanies; and searing sociopolitical commentary. Small moments provide windows into worlds, slipping through the decades of Nat’s life and his many travels. In this book, he also visits with ghosts of Australia’s troubled settler history.

I think Nat and I first connected over our experiences as emigrants and how that seeped into our poetry. And of course there was also our shared love of two homelands – Australia and Ireland – both of which are everywhere in this book, alongside the many other paths Nat has travelled with wide-open eyes and heart.

Nat is a poet who has always slipped easily into ancestral cadences, gliding between worlds with a sharp eye and an ever-present longing. The opening poem in this book – ‘Symptoms of Homesickness’ – beautifully captures a recurring theme in Nat’s work, the ache of the diaspora. In this gorgeously wrought list poem (and there are lists in many poems within this book), he artfully catalogues telltale signs, such as:

Never having a dream set outside Australia,
even when you’ve lived in half a dozen countries.

He concludes his list of homesickness symptoms with this touching clincher:

Wondering how much it costs to fly a body home.

In the poem, ‘Bayou’, Nat magnificently portrays the gift of seeing wonder in the world through the eyes of your child:

Gliding through the bayou
between bald cypress trees

[…]

We scan the banks for gators,
listen for slithers and splashes,
hoping for a little fright

Romantic love is captured across the decades from first adolescent fumblings to the maturation of a lifelong partnership. Consider the merging of seductive imagery and wistful reminiscence in these lines from his glorious poem, ‘Hiraeth’:

tumbling on the sand beside the waves
seagulls swirling overhead 

[…] 

yearning for a time beyond time
when youth had no end
passion burned eternally 

The ache of exile from family is felt most acutely in his COVID poem, ‘Separation Blues’:

Whole communities raised their drawbridges,
…….dug moats, locked gates, afraid

of the invisible threat. We sent words
…….and images through

the air, across continents, beneath the sea,
…….watched the same

moon, waited for science to save us

But Nat has also interwoven into this book his trademark wry humour and his uncanny knack of never taking himself too seriously – as demonstrated in these crackling lines from his poem, ‘Earthquake’ which is set during a trip to Mexico: 

I rode out a 7.2 earthquake
clinging to a double bed
in Puerto Vallarta
while losing the battle
with Montezuma’s revenge

He is also happy to take a dig at the contradictions of his adopted country – for example in the poem ‘Houston’ – which evidences both Nat’s gifted lyricism and his slickness of syntax:

 At The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club
geriatric cowboys mixed with homeboys
and posturing hombres from the barrio
as cowgirls and divas two-stepped
and swung to the funk

Nat’s skill with succinctness and arresting imagery are evidenced in many poems, but most delicately for me in ‘Études’ – here are a few gorgeous lines:

Pre-dawn embraces
impress like détente.

[…]

Raspberry tea steeps
sacrificing heat.

[…]

I read High Windows
on the train to Hull,
contemplate fuck-ups.

This is a meticulously crafted, beguiling, heartwarming and heart-full book. But please don’t just take my word for it – buy the book and immerse yourself in Nathanael O’Reilly’s stunning Separation Blues.

 – Anne Casey

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Originally from the west of Ireland and living in Australia for three decades, Anne Casey is the author of five poetry collections. Her work is widely published and awarded internationally, ranking in The Irish Times’ Most Read. Anne has a PhD in archival poetry and poetics of resistance from the University of Technology Sydney where she teaches creative writing. anne-casey.com

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Separation Blues: Poems 1994-2024 by Nathanael O’Reilly is available from Flying Islands Poetry Community