Liam Ryan canvasses a wide spectrum of subjects in his third collection of poems What's happening in the Shade. Part I of the collection visits life, death and religion, while Part II examines love in many of its forms: parental love, spousal love, and unrequited love. Formidable in lyrical intensity throughout, there are no boundaries to the places Ryan will visit in his poetry. His cold, dark winters are punctured by light, dewy springs, and for every green meadow full of emotion there’s a wooden desk covered with precise lines and measurements. He provides both objective observations and his private thoughts, with a joke or a pun always waiting just around the corner.

 

Throughout What's happening in the Shade, Ryan borrows the words of fifteen world poets - including Pablo Neruda, Mirabai, and Rainer Maria Rilke - translates them, and transforms them to his own, offering new versions of lofty poetry to professor and novice alike. In this newest collection of poems, Liam Ryan truly becomes master of all trades.