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Life
1951- ; b. in England; moved to Ireland, 1980; works in Adult Eduation in Kilkenny and Waterford; author of poetry collections, The Hen Ark (1991), winner of Aldeburgh Festival Prize; issued Catching the Light (1996), The Home Fire (1998) and Whereabouts (2005); Even So (2008), new and selected poems, is introduced by Carol Rumens (2008).
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Works
Poetry collections, The Hen Ark (Calstock: Peterloo Poets 1991), 64pp.; Catching the Light (Lagan Press 1996), 68pp., and Do. [another edn.] (Calstock Peterloo Poets 1997), 66pp.; The Home Fire (Newry: Abbey Press 1998), 30pp. [ltd. edn. 1000] ; Whereabouts (Abbey Press; Peterloo 2005), 63pp.; Even So: New & Selected Poems, introduced by Carol Rumens (Dubin: Dedalus Press 2008), 170pp. [incls. 42 new poems].
Miscellaneous, ed. A Moment's Grace: The Waterford Corporation Seán Dunne Young Writers Awards, 1995-1999 (Waterford: Waterford Corp. 2000), 39pp., ill. [some col.; port.]
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Commentary
Catriona O’Reilly, reviewing The Home Fire (1998), with others, in The Irish Times [30 Jan. 1999], quotes lines: ‘a robin’s dull ember / in the wreck / of a tree’ and commends the poet for the ‘unerring accuracy of his language’, noting an indebtedness to Seamus Heaney in common with many others; regards the collection as an ‘effective appetiser’.
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Hugh McFadden, review of Even So: New and Selected Poems, in Books Ireland (March 2009): ‘[...] a careful and acute observer of the natural world of the countryside with the fift of presenting his images aso as to create a pictorial world into which the reader can step as a lone and individual visitor. He can express joy a the beauty of nature and also wonder at its impenetrable or inscrutable grandeur. His work is very descriptive, yet he often manages to edit out a sense of the writer as an editorial presence. In that way, he seems to allow the imagery to speak for itself, as it were. [...] There are a number of memorable poems about wild birds, their distance from humankind, and their interaction with man, from herons to Brent geese to swifts, to gold-crests, to starlings and blackbirds - as well as this deft miniature portrait of a swallow: “A spent firework / on the lawn. / Tiny feet still / hooked on space. / Wings wind-sleek, / sleek with wind. / So full of flight / it must have died / of ripeness. / In the tail’s V / a stalk of sky.”’ [Quotes as infra.]
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Quotations
“Evening”: ‘blue shadow in a wood / a whisper of finches / the light failing // a grass-choked path / willowherb seeding / ragwort and bramble // black and silver water / after-circles of fish / uneasy reeds // a crow hung from a tree / stalks on a dungheap / a rake a rusty spade // up ahead a house / a few fl owers / the scent of smoke // an arm in a window / a woman making bread / and you yourself / in there sitting down / to eat unable to take / any of it in.’
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