Some of Durcan’s poems are extremely long, others are incredibly short. However even when the poem is short, these little nuggets are bursting with content and finely crafted style.
Durcan is a master of the very short poem. They often work like punchlines or visual gags. We stare for a minute or two before we get the true meaning.He manages to pack a great deal of meaning into a couple of lines. They often work by juxtaposition i.e. placing two unlikely statements side by side.
These poems confront us with a question and often a very unlikely answer.
After studying Durcan's poetry, my class wrote their own short poems mimicking the themes, style and Format. The results are in the video below.