One Crimson Thread

Micheal OSiadhail is an internationally acclaimed poet whose whose works include The Five Quintets and One Crimson Thread. He is Distinguished Poet in Residence at Union Theological Seminary.

O'Siadhail is skilled at his craft. And though some of the sonnets stand out more than others, the total effect is a compelling, rhythmic ritual of commemoration and grief. His book is a valuable and unusual addition to the literature of illness, caregiving, death, and grieving, inviting believers and unbelievers alike to remember that though we must 'endure our going hence, ' graces lie along that hard way like alpine flowers that weather the hardest wind. --Marilyn McEntyre "Christian Scholar's Review" One Crimson Thread is a compelling, intimate, and memorable body of heartfelt poetry. -- "The Poetry Shelf, Midwest Book Review" One Crimson Thread, a beautiful, tender and heartbreaking series of poems that chronicle the last two years of Brid's life, her death and his grief. --Andrea Smith "Sunday Independent" I read slowly, carefully, and with deep emotion One Crimson Thread. It's a beautiful, beautiful but terribly sad poem of love. --Jean Vanier It is the biography of a marriage and one of the most elegant pictures of faithfulness that I have ever encountered in all my years of reading...This is an extraordinary collection; a portrait of love and of a poet's immortal faithfulness. --Thomas McCarthy "The Irish Examiner" Micheal O'Siadhail is one of Ireland's finest poets...but his latest collection of poems is perhaps his most personal and affecting yet. --Miriam O'Callaghan, RTE (Ireland's national radio station) O'Siadhail seems to rise to a new intensity of writing and analysis in this collection. This is both a searing and a beautiful interrogation... it offers immense compassion and consolation. --Martyn Halsall "Church Times" One of the most emotionally compelling books of poetry I've read in a long time, the sequence chronicles the final two years of a forty-year marriage, as the poet's beloved wife... The privilege of witnessing the hard but redemptive reality this couple had to face is one of the great gifts this remarkable book provides. --David M. Katz "The Hopkins Review" The images conjured by the poet are so vivid that I feel I have been to the place where she lives for the few months before she dies...I think those who have loved ones who have Parkinson's disease would learn more from reading this poem than reading swathes of medical literature, and likewise professionals can only benefit from the emotional understanding gained from reading and re-reading this poem. --Teresa Black "Journal of Geriatric Care and Research" This is poetry that is deeply human and accessible, beautifully observed, honest and technically controlled. --Francis Phillips "Catholic Herald"