Acclaimed Irish poet Rita Ann Higgins came to TCU in October, speaking to TCU classes in part on the struggles that come with being labeled the country’s “working-class poet,” a phrase she despises. “I did not want any title or pedestal to come down from. . . . It is so difficult to have something to be answerable to. I only want to be answerable to the pen that is giving me the poems.”

Prism

After the man up our street
stuck broken glass
on top of his back wall to keep out those youngsters
who never stopped
teasing his Doberman Pincher,

He put the safety chain
on the door
sat at the kitchen window,
let out a nervous laugh
and watched the Castle Park sun
divide the light
and scatter it all over his property.
— Rita Ann Higgins