Helen Curtin Moskey

Who is Helen Curtin Moskey?

Helen Curtin Moskey was an Irish-American poet of dual U.S.-Irish nationality. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with honors, from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and studied poetry with several established American poets, including Mark Doty, Stanley Kunitz, and Yusef Komunyakaa, and at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Additionally, the Irish poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was a friend and advisor. Moskey’s work appeared in occasional compilations of poetry. At the time of her death, she was preparing a volume of her selected poetry for publication.

Her experiences as the child of an Irish immigrant mother; her extended stays at the family ancestral home at Muingaphuca, Caragh Lake, County Kerry; and her experience as a mid-century American woman who raised five children through the intense social transformation of American life from the post-war era to the 1970s, were powerful influences on the tone, style, and subject matter of her poetry.

WAKING TO MORNING IN MUINGAPHUCA

In Memory of Aunt Kate

The fierce buzz

of two black horseflies

mating

over my bed.