Requiem

Written in memory of her mother, who died of motor neurone disease in 2012, the poems of Requiem roughly cover the timespan of an illness, death, and burial. The formal structure is based on the Catholic Requiem Mass as it has been set as a choral piece by Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, and many others. The poems quote from other classical and folk works about the underworld and the passage into death, juxtaposing the engagement with the old text with modern references.
Winner of the Poetry Book Society Spring Pamphlet Choice.
2. Kyrie
Lord have mercy upon her

Christ have mercy upon her

Day have mercy upon her

Night have mercy upon her

Bed have mercy upon her

Hoist have mercy upon her

Catheter have mercy upon her

Needle have mercy upon her

Gastrostomy have mercy upon her

Citalopram have mercy upon her

Riluzole have mercy upon her

Morphine have mercy upon her [...]

Based in Berlin, Síofra McSherry was born in Newry, Northern Ireland. She earned her PhD in American Literature from the Freie Universität Berlin in 2017. Síofra completed a BA English at the University of Oxford and received her MA from University College London. She has published her poems in anthologies including The Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt 2011), Bird Book (Sidekick Books 2011) Sylvia is Missing (Flarestack 2012) and journals including Poetry Wales, Poems in Which, Foam:e, Abraxas, and Hysteria.