Get to Know My Work: 3 Books in 3 Poems

By way of introduction, in this post I’ve chosen three poems which give a snapshot of the three books I’ve published with Gallery Press. 

The Starlings

This was first published in The Ulster Tatler’s ‘Literary Miscellany’ edited at the time by Glenn Patterson. I’m interested in the tension between the need to belong to a group/collaborate/be social and the need for solitude. This poem tries to touch on this, but, that said, it’s also a poem about looking out of the window.

Words for Summer

Louis MacNeice’s ‘Meeting Point’ was one of the first poems which made me sit up and listen. It was being read out on television, in the background, as part of a documentary, and I was pulled in by its repetition and imagery. Some of my favourite poems, like MacNeice’s, are love poems, and this one was my attempt to dip my toe in the genre. I’m now married to the  addressee. This poem was first published in Poetry Ireland Review, ‘The Rising Generation’, edited by Vona Groarke.

Teaching English

I taught English in schools for about thirteen years, and now work freelance as a private tutor while I attempt to complete my PhD on the subject of contemporary poetry from Northern Ireland. So, what’s this poem about? Oh I don’t know, what’s any poem about. Time; imagination; youth; the daily grind; movies - take your pick. This poem was listed in the Kent and Sussex Poetry Competition, judged by Jonathan Edwards.