…Exile and dislocation are familiar themes in Irish literature and The Truth in Mustard by Terry McDonagh exploress these to the full. McDonagh has travelled far and wide. His poetic self continually reflects on journeying and crafts images to make sense of it all. Memory, alienation and longing are leitmotifs deep within him…
The title poem points the reader back to the poet´s childhood fascination with the exotic ingredient of mustard his mother used to flavour the boiled bacon, “or even beef, if she saw fit.” She used mustard for all sorts of things; hot and potent, it fired up life. Though herself “quiet and assertive” shie always had “one eyer never far from the mustard”; it was an ingredient that gave her power. But its unintended effect was to make the poet long “for a thimbleful of wild mustard/ to blast me off to China.”…
An Eye on the Mustard Jar
20
Jul