I'm a proud contributor to The SHOp Issue number 45, Summer 2014. My poem After MC Escher's Hands Drawing Hands made the cut. It had been highly commended last autumn in the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Poetry Award. I wrote it in pencil late one Saturday night last summer. In this issue of The SHOp I'm back to back with Kevin Graham whose poetry I admire a lot. I had a poem beside one of his a couple of years ago in The Stony Thursday Book too.
I was saddened to read that the editors John and Hilary Wakeman are to cease publication of The SHOp after 15 years of dedication to the magazine. There will be two more issues, 46 and 47, combined in one final double issue to appear in November. Over the past few years having a poem appear in The SHOp was something I always aspired to. It is looked upon as being one of the finest magazines of poetry in Ireland.
.JPG)
