Biodiversity
What you need is an intermediate disturbance.
One fallen tree in a forest
(let’s not fret about its sound)
lets the sunlight in.
The plants in exile creep back,
breathe, fill up the space.
Decades later this patch
will win all the prizes for diversity.
You’ll find hundreds of species
where coral reefs meet crashing waves,
where storm clouds sometimes loom,
and if anthozoans could talk
they’d spout fridge-magnet wisdom:
adversity makes you more resilient.
Like Goldilocks, nature demands it be just right.
Too small and there is no impact on the status quo.
Too large and a void cracks open,
a black spot where only the hardiest survive,
and that is not most of us.
About the Author
Claire Hennessy is a writer, editor, book reviewer, and creative writing facilitator based in Dublin, Ireland. She is the author of twelve books for young people, and her most recent YA novels Like Other Girls and Nothing Tastes As Good are published by Hot Key Books. Her work has been nominated for the Irish Book Awards and the Carnegie Medal. Her shorter work (fiction, poetry) has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies. She also reviews YA fiction for The Irish Times, children’s fiction for Inis, and other bits and pieces upon request.
About ROPES
ROPES Literary Journal is published annually by students of the MA in Literature and Publishing at NUI Galway. This year, the journal celebrates its 30th year of publication. When ROPES started out, initial editions focused on Irish politics and history. Over the years, the journal began to include works of fiction, the first being featured in 1998. More recently, the journal has endeavoured to include a wider array of material, ranging from poetry and non-fiction to visual art. ROPES has now firmly established itself as part of the flourishing literary journal scene here in Ireland; what started out as space for students to gain publishing experience has now become a legitimate home for the work of emerging and established writers.
The work that appears in this year’s edition was selected from a pool of 907 written submissions and 153 visual submissions. Readers will find that much of the journal’s work focusses on issues such as landscape, power, disability, dislocation, and gender. The poems published here on Cois Coiribe Impact, by Claire Hennessy and R. J. Breathnach, provoke readers to consider ourselves and our futures in relation to our threatened and fragile environments.
On April 6th of this year, ROPES Issue 30 débuted to the world as a part of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature. The team launched the freshly printed journal in the National Irish Language Theatre, An Taibhdhearc, to a nearly full house. The journal is available to purchase from their website as well as from a number of esteemed book shops, including Charlie Byrne’s in Galway and The Winding Stair in Dublin. Be sure to stay up to date with ongoing projects with ROPES by following @ropeslitjournal across social media and subscribing to their newsletter via the website.
