Geis is a word from Irish mythology meaning a supernatural taboo or
injunction on behavior. In her third volume of poetry (following the
critically acclaimed The Nowhere Birds and The Sea Cabinet), Caitríona
O'Reilly examines the geis in all of its psychological, emotional, and
moral suggestiveness: exploring the prohibitions and compulsions under
which we sometimes place ourselves, or find ourselves placed. Geis is
the first appearance of a volume by Caitríona O'Reilly in North America,
though she has been anthologized numerous times, including in The Wake
Forest Series of Irish Poetry, Volume I (2005) and The Wake Forest Book
of Irish Women's Poetry (2nd edition, 2011). In poems that range from
the searingly personal to the more playfully abstract and philosophical,
this poet's characteristic imaginative range and linguistic verve are
everywhere in evidence. These are poems that question our sometimes
tenuous links with the world, with others, and even with ourselves, but
which ultimately celebrate the richness of experience and the power of
language to affirm it.