Friday 20 November 2015

County Kerry by Kerry Hammerton

County Kerry

Kerry Hammerton



I have heard that it is a place of contrasts.

Rocky cliffs and sweeping sandy bays

in the south, flatter estuary plains in the north.


A place touched by mist and criss-crossed

with narrow country lanes. Kerry holds ancient

Celtic mysteries, guards a tradition of poetry and song.


I imagine lilting voices murmuring in pubs,

and that you could fall in love here,

spend time, discover secrets here.


When I am asked how I spell my name

I always say, ‘The traditional way;

the ancient way; the Irish way’.




From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0


The Poet:


Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poetry has been published in various South African and UK literary journals and anthologies. In her debut poetry collection These are the lies I told you, (Modjaji 2010) Kerry was described as ‘an anatomist of romantic love’ and ‘amusing, refreshing and extraordinarily entertaining’. The Weather Report (2014), her second collection, has been called ‘playful, absurd, yearning, elegiac, dark and wicked’. Kerry is currently doing an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.






Sources of previously published poems:

Kerry Hammerton: I am falling; County Kerry; and Maps from The Weather Report, 2014.


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