James Mc Elroy completed his earlier undergraduate and graduate studies at Trinity College, Dublin. He taught at the Irish College of Journalism and the National University of Ireland. After several years teaching (and with another Irish recession looming on the horizon), Mc Elroy decided to leave Dublin and go to New York, where he continued to teach (at schools including Manhattan College, Marymount College, and Manhattanville College) and research Irish literature. He returned to Dublin to complete his PhD and then found his way to UC Davis, where he has taught an assortment of courses including Nature & Irish Literature, Celtic Connections: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Management Communications, Early Victorian Literature, Technical Writing, Scientific Writing, Journalism, and Advanced Composition.
IBW
By James Mc Elroy
The “big woodpecker.”
Two of them–the woodpeckers,
That is–
Hammered on the monastery’s
Old trees with their hang of
Spanish moss.
Years later you discover that
Ivory Billed Woodpeckers
Once lived in the same area
As Mepkin Abbey and drop
The monks a line to see if their
Woodpeckers could have been
One of the lists’s Lazarus species.
A monk writes back
In a couple of weeks
And hedges his bets. To
Quote:
“If you saw the great bird, then you are indeed
Blessed.”
