The Meek

True voices abound in The Meek, Martin Dyar’s second full-length collection of poems, throughout which a dramatically charged lyricism links environmental understanding with an emotive exploration of human experience and potential. The Meek is distinguished by the resonance and range of its stories, by its closeness to elemental landscape and wildlife, and by its moments of unforgettable insight and beauty. In one poem, ＂ A Lockdown Fox,＂ ＂ The whole street felt acknowledged by the earth and longed for more.＂ Elsewhere, in ＂ A Merlin in the Sheeffrys,＂ ＂ There is a feeling that is equal to the land, / a sense of self that is the journey’s length.＂ And in the title sonnet, a powerful consideration of animal rights, one of Dyar’s bruised and enigmatic characters arrives at ＂ a cold acceptance of nature’s cold view / that all of life is love misunderstood.＂

Originally from Swinford in County Mayo, Martin Dyar is the author of the Pigott Prize-shortlisted poetry collection Maiden Names (Arlen House, 2013) and The Meek (Wake Forest University Press, 2025). He is also the editor of the anthology Vital Signs: Poems of Illness and Healing (Poetry Ireland, 2022). He has been awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, the Strokestown International Poetry Award, and an Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary Award. He teaches in the field of Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.