Borrowings of the Shan Van Vocht

By: Catherine Moore

Narrated by: Ciara Mahon

This chapbook-length collection of prose poems explores lost voices of the soil-mummified nameless, whose bodies are recovered from bog lands. The "borrowings" in "Borrowings of the Shan Van Vocht" are Bog Bodies—naturally preserved corpses—displayed sometimes like sideshow curiosities in museums worldwide. These bodies are titled after the bog, melting and churning, which exhumed them.

In creating a lyrical voice for these nameless, the poet kept in mind what modern-day forensics reveals about the nature of life and death for bodies recovered from the bogs—the what of their diets, the ways their occupations or illnesses marked their bodies, and the how behind their death.

The forces of nature at work on the bog lands are also given voice in this collection—wind, sun, and the Shan Van Vocht, the bog, itself. “Shan Van Vocht” is a phonetic transliteration of the Gaelic phrase (tSeanbhean bhocht) for the land goddess, its meaning translates as Poor Old Woman. In modern druid terms, it’s similar to Mother Nature. Using Gaelic in the collection’s title was instinctive since peat bog covers 17 percent of Ireland's surface. Other large bog lands are found in Canada and throughout Scandinavian countries.

It is interesting to note that we know little of the Bog Bodies from Canada, as those corpses are honored with protection and, therefore, absent for this collection.

Poems within this collection were nominated for The Pushcart and The Best of the Net literary awards.

©2020 Catherine Moore (P)2022 Catherine Moore