On Friday, Oct. 10, the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, within the Keough School of Global Affairs, hosted Luke Morgan for a poetry reading of his new book “Blood Atlas” in Jenkins and Nanovic Halls.
About 20 people were in attendance with just over half being faculty. The event opened with words from Thomas O’Grady, who worked as director of Irish studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston for over 35 years. He introduced Morgan and briefly spoke about his interpretation of “Blood Atlas,” before handing the mic to Morgan, who read his poems aloud and gave snippets of his backstory. At the end, Morgan hosted a question-and-answer session, and his collections were available for sale.
Morgan is a young poet and filmmaker from Galway, Ireland. He writes a variety of structured poems including villanelles, sonnets and more. This September, he released his third collection, entitled “Blood Atlas,” published under Arlen House.
Morgan reflected on the ways that these two art forms support one another by maintaining honesty.
“Because I know there’s something innately, in our psyche, that can recognize truth and honesty, and when others are being honest, we sit up and we take note. I find that when I am kind of too long in either world … it hurts the work, because I am further from honesty.”
Morgan conceded that collections do not have to have a theme, noting that his first, “Honest Walls,” which was published in 2016 when Morgan was 22, was merely a set of poems that he had written. This is contrasted by his second collection, “Beast,” which was published in 2022, in which every poem is connected to an animal.
However, he explained that he enjoys when collections have a theme, and many of the ones he was reading at the time he started “Blood Atlas” were themed, citing “North” by Seamus Heaney, “Life Studies” by Robert Lowell and “Rapture” by Carol Ann Duffy.
Morgan said, “Well, I like the idea of a poetry book being more than the sum of its parts. Now, how do you set about writing a themed collection without stifling creativity and becoming a slave to the theme?”
Diving into the specifics, he explained that the theme of “Blood Atlas” emerged from going through a rough year with his health and being squeamish about blood. As much as he did not want to be in these medical environments, it offered him a chance and a topic to write about. Simultaneously, his curiosity was piqued with the Great Irish Famine and how that related to his familial roots. Unifying these themes, he realized the ways that blood can be a deeper theme than health or family alone.
Prior to reading his poem “Distributary,” Morgan touched on the complexities of chosen and inherited family within his nuclear family given that his parents separated at a young age.
“Back to family now, and I suppose I’ve read a couple of poems about the family we inherit, but also the family we make along the way, the ones that we have we can choose. The thing about relationships and people we choose in life is sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he said.
This seemed to echo the larger themes of “Blood Atlas,” as he discussed the people that were, the people that could have been and the people that are.
Despite being from Ireland, all of Morgan’s poetry was in English, until recently. Morgan explained that his parents did not speak Irish, so he has not always felt confident in the language. A few years ago, he made an effort to reconnect with that aspect of his linguistic heritage, and he became inspired by the phrase “an teach dóite,” which directly translates to “the burned house,” which is a metaphor for friendship. He then dove into attempting a poem in Irish.
During his reading on Friday, Morgan shared the following poems: “One Day Blood,” “Blood Pressure,” “The School of Athens,” “Pitch,” “Sonnet for a Deer Tick,” “An Teach Dóite,” “Kelpie,” “Literature,” “Distributary,” “Congestion” and “True Meridian.”
Morgan is the 2025 Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award winner. This is an award given out by the University of St. Thomas Center for Irish Studies to celebrate Irish poets. The award was founded in 1997, with Eavan Boland being the first winner.
Morgan is a recipient of scholarship funds from the Arts Council of Ireland to make the publication of “Beasts” and “Blood Atlas” possible.
