Seang (Hungering)

Seang bears witness

Anne Casey is a Sydney-based, award-winning poet, originally from Ireland. Her poetry collection Seang (Hungering) gives voice to the lost histories of girls and their families who suffered through An Gorta Mór (The Great Irish Famine). They endured discrimination, incarceration, indentured servitude, and destitution — both in Ireland and in Australia — shaped by colonial policies and attitudes.

The collection weaves the perspectives of the girls, their families, colonial officials, and Anne’s own ancestral memory. Irish myth, folklore, and the Irish language — Gaeilge — are woven throughout.

Seang is cultural reclamation, feminist protest, and a call to compassion for the millions of children suffering similar hardships today. You don’t have to be Irish to feel its resonance. The work is accessible and ultimately, uplifting.

Upturning stones, unearthing symbols

When Anne invited me to create an illustration for the cover, I wanted to contribute something in service to the poetry — more than a literal image. We shared ideas and sketches along the way.

Crows are messengers from the otherworld in Irish folklore. We agreed early on: the crow would be rendered as a dead bird. Its tail feathers echo the pleats in the women’s skirts of the era. Its wings cradle its body in a gesture reminiscent of a shawl or funerary shroud, or grasping for comfort and warmth. The linework across its torso is loose, open — a reference to the rotting, withering leaves of a potato plant infected with blight.

It’s a depiction of the passing of a spirited, raucous creature — the delicate ending of a precious life.

I’m proud to be associated with Anne’s work. She is an insightful poet a master of the art and a generous mentor and collaborator. Seang is available from Salmon Poetry