My poetry chapbook Drawn to the Light is at the print shop and almost a reality. It contains 13 poems which have appeared previously in Boyne Berries, Crannog, Revival, The Linnet's Wings, Wordlegs, The Sharp Review, The Stony Thursday Book, Shot Glass Journal, Outburst, thefirstcut, The Meath Chronicle and New Poems of Oriel. This will be the first time that a selection of my poems will appear together as an entity. I am grateful to The Boyne Writers' Group for giving me this opportunity. Drawn to the Light is the third chapbook in The Boyne Writers' Group Chapbook Series. Michael Farry published Ashes and Snow in 2009 and Brendan Carey Kinnane published Racket in the Air in 2009 also. The 13 poems included cover a period of ten years of writing in my life, from when I was 23 to 33. I am proud of the work.
I made the chapbook over the last three months. It has been a cautious process for me. Only the other day I omitted two poems in favour of a longer poem. I am nervous about reading the poems as I find it much easier to write the work than to recite it in public. Nevertheless I am looking forward to the reading. I hope a small group of people will be there on the night.
The June Boyne Readings and Open Mic will take place next Thursday night, the 21st of June (the summer solstice) at 8pm in the Knightsbridge Retirement Village Coffee Shop, Longwood Road, Trim, Co. Meath. Paddy Smith, Chairman of Boyne Writers' Group, will be MC. An open mic session will follow the launch of Drawn to the Light. A copy of the chapbook will be available free of cost to those who attend. All are welcome to attend and read. Admission will be 5 euro. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.
"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear."
Puck, Act v scene i, A Midsummer Night's Dream
