Two of my own favourite poems of the past year found their home in The Lake, edited by John Murphy. It is a UK based zine. The poems are called John Keats' Ghost (also longlisted in last year's Anthony Cronin Poetry Award) and Little Hercules Under the Blossoms Exploding on Mount Fuji. Both poems can be read here.
Cover Design Dreaming Glasses by Carlota Gómez Touet
Recently I recorded a poem, written in April 2019 for the virtual launch of Crannóg 52. My poem is titled Heloise to Abelard. You can listen to many of the works included in this issue here.
I'm back to you today blog for a wee check-in. Trim Poetry Festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. Well done to Patrick Lodge who won the poetry competition and to Maeve McKenna and Matt Hohner who were joint runners-up. Patrick's poem can be read here. Boyne Berries 27 has also been released and can be purchased via PayPal here.
I was delighted to have my debut poetry collection accepted by Jessie Lendennie of Salmon Poetry. It will be published in spring 2023. This is something I've been working towards for a long time.
Recently I had a poem published in Tales from the Forest, issue 11, Lore. I have poems forthcoming in Crannóg 52, Impossible Archetype and The Lake at the end of the month and early April. More news to follow of a possible reading in the summer and other things.
Yesterday I admired the buds growing on the trees, the daffodils and the first of the primroses. I've included a very old poem below in honour of the daffodils. I'm always struck by how luminous they can seem in the twilight, or the early morning light. Their trumpets really do herald the end of wintertime, the beginning of spring. The photo is my own, just taken in the garden.
Boyne Berries 27 will be launched on Friday, 13th March at 7.30 pm by Pat Dunne as part of Trim Poetry Festival. Pat Dunne was born in Trim, Co. Meath and is an internationally successful crime writer. Dunne studied English and Philosophy at UCD and worked as Press Officer for Bord na gCapall before joining RTÉ Radio where he produced the station’s flagship Gerry Ryan Show. He retired in 2004 to become a full-time writer. Meath’s history and heritage feature prominently in his archaeological thrillers. Dunne is also a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1 and lives in Celbridge, Co. Kildare, with his wife Theckla.
This issue contains the work of the ten poets shortlisted for Trim Poetry Competition 2020 and 42 other pieces of work. Those included are:
Kate Ennals Liam McNevin Arthur Broomfield Eamon Cooke Dan A. Cardoza Seán Kennedy Peter Goulding Felicia McCarthyPolly Richardson Mark Ward Stephen de Búrca Kevin Graham Peter Adair Lorraine Carey Angela Kirwan Michael Farry Justin Aylward Anne Crinion Glenn Hubbard Richard W. Halperin Sinéad MacDevitt Carolyne Van Der Meer Honor Duff Diarmuid Fitzgerald Marc Gijsemans K.S. Moore L.R. Harvey Eugene Platt Elizabeth McGeown Róisín Bugler Niamh Twomey Maria Isakova Bennett Gerard Smyth Rory Duffy Linda Ibbotson Conor Kelly Orla Fay Frances Browne Matt Hohner Catherine Conlon John D. Kelly David Butler Martin Sykes Marian Brannigan Patrick Lodge Karen O’Connor Maeve McKenna Steve Wade Claire Hennessy John Conroy Jenny Andersson Anne Callan
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"Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea."
"When the heart weeps for what it has lost the spirit laughs for what it has found."
"(i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands"
Orla Fay is a member of Boyne Writers Group. In 2001 she won the Meath Chronicle/Bookwise Short Story Competition and in 2003 the Drogheda Creative Writers Adult Poetry Competition. In 2004 she had a poem commended in the Golden Pen Poetry Competition and in 2005 she was awarded 3rd place in the Dunlavin Poetry Competition and published in the 23rd Dunlavin Festival of Arts Annual. She has been published in the Meath Chronicle, New Poems of Oriel (2006), Boyne Berries Magazine, Crannog Magazine, Revival Poetry Journal, The Sharp Review, Ropes 2010, NUIG's Writers' Society's Writers' Exchange Chapbook, Riposte, Wordlegs, The Linnet's Wings, The Stony Thursday Book 2011 & 2013, thefirstcut, Shot Glass Journal, Census 3, Silver Blade Magazine, HeadSpace, Outburst, The Galway Review, The Artistic Atlas of Galway, Shamrock Haiku Journal, Carillon, The Poetry Porch, Three Drops from a Cauldron, The Ofi Press, Headstuff, Abridged, Amaryllis, The Pickled Body, A New Ulster, Tales from the Forest, The Honest Ulsterman, Lagan Online, An Anthology of Reactions, The Rose Magazine, Orbis and The Ogham Stone 2017. In 2008 she was a finalist in the Meath County Library Eist Poetry Competition. In 2009 she had a poem commended in the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award. In 2010 she had a poem highly commended in the Windows Publications Cavan Crystal Poetry Award. In 2011 she had a story selected for The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions in The Irish Writers' Centre. In June 2012 she published her poetry chapbook Drawn to the Light. She was a featured reader at O'Bheal in Cork in March 2013. She was highly commended for poetry in The Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards in October 2013 and long-listed in the WOW fiction Awards 2014. She was longlisted for poetry in The Anthony Cronin International Poetry Prize 2017, The Fish Poetry Prize 2017 and The Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition 2017 and shortlisted in The Rush Poetry Competition 2017, The Dermot Healy Poetry Award 2017 and The Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition 2017.
