Shelley Corcoran has published in Murze 11 & 12, A New Ulster, The York Literary Review, Parentheses Journal,  Galway Review 9, Tír na nÓg II & III, Lemon Peel Press, Green Ink Poetry 5, Marble, Chasing Shadows Anthology, Live & Local, Abridged, and Haunted Words Press. 

She has performed at Cruthu Festival 2021 and 2022, Tír na nÓg night, Written in the Stars (Poetry Day), Culture Night and is compiler for Chasing Shadows Anthology.

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The Day is Long for Seeking

A stir and flitter,
then all is quiet,
so still, I hear the silence,
I see the hush.

Bare toes curl, grabbing grass blades,
damp from the morning dew.
First day of May, I bathe my face
to remain beautiful.

My daughter hides behind
peeling, teal paint.
The day is long for seeking
and for tinting wood.

With our faces to the earth,
we see an underworld
that smells of clay.
Lying in the dirt, we watch snails pass by.

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Love Poem For The Once Bitten

Oh my! Brash bears try to break the fringes
of the forest but they don’t scare me.

I can lull and soften heartbeats.

In the bosom of our tent,
with two sleeping bags
zipped up to forge one,
teeth and tongues studded with spikes
remain outside.

We ignite to stay warm.

And as you melt we
sit in the clearance
of a clandestine wood.

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Formidable Face

Fatiguing not to flinch
with this feeling of foreboding.
I carved a formidable face to bring
fire inside, fierce for all to see.

I shudder from skeleton to skin,
I have created a monster, darling
and it lives within me.
I faked it till I made it,
a shrinking violet no longer.

I try to simper and seem convincing,
reflecting the audience’s perception.
I am entranced and tormented
by who I’ve become,
seemingly by chance, yet I am the author.