https://cassandravoices.com/culture/literature/poetry/poem-vitruvian-woman/
Click on the link above to see my
latest publication on Cassandran Voices edited by Frank Armstrong who has
been consistently supportive of my work since Daniel Wade introduced me to him
some years ago. I'd like to express my appreciation to Frank and all of
the other editors like him who remained loyal to me over the years,
without editors like Frank Armstrong my writing would have never had a proper
platform. These days, this has become more and more important. Maintaining
consistency and being true to your own individual style is absolutely
crucial, particularly today when censorship is a very special problem. I
mean it was always an issue with me in my own c(o)untry, the Reublic of Ireland,
I have always had problems getting published there. I still haven't had a
single book, out of the several I have published elsewhere over the years,
published in the Republic. Why is that?
I have no real idea, really. I
mean it's not as if I haven't tried over the years. Even as recently as
last year, I was trying to find a publisher for my first novel, The
Fetishist, and despite publishers praising the 'obvious' merits of my
writing, they still passed when it came to publication. I mean, what can you
say after forty years! I have obviously given up scratching my head about that
one. But, one thing I can definitely say is that despite all the talk
about so called modern Ireland, it still remains, at least to me, as one
of the most repressive and particularly stifling places to live and write,
which for me, don't get me wrong, is actually a good thing. Writers strive
under repressive regimes, Stalin knew this.
Am I comparing contemporary
Ireland to the former Soviet Russia? Not at all, but what I am saying is that
censorship and repression has always been a fundamental aspect of Irish life
ever since I was a young man in my teens. The nineteen eighties, for God's
sake, where among the most repressive times to live in this c(o)untry
which is why I got the hell out of here as soon as the opportunity arose, which
was back in 1989.
Having spent the majority of the
nineties travelling around Europe, and particularly in France where I
lived for several years, to return to the Boom period of the Celtic Tiger was a
truly phenomenal experience, and I wouldn't have missed experiencing at
first hand the tremendous economic and social changes that we experienced
over the last two decades and a half. However, culturally this place has gone
to the proverbial dogs ridden as it is with ideology, particularly in the very
narrow world of literature and poetry. I have enough experience now with
over a decade of engagement with public readings, publications and
festivals etc. to be able to voice an objective enough eye on the whole sham
that is the so called art scene in the Republic of Ireland today. The above
poem, Vitruvian Woman, which I dedicated to my wife Laura, says
more than enough about a particularly woeful aspect of the arts here. I
rest my case.
Other news, not completely
unrelated, I am currently putting together a Selected Poems with
the title Nasty Jokes and the poems are all taken from the
several collections already published and a few, such as the poem above,
that have been taken from my latest collection The Rose Garden and
which remains unpublished.
The dates on the work are 1985 -
2015, which is a period of 40 years. That's a long time to spend doing a
particular thing, in my case poetry. So, one thing that strikes me over the
amount of work that I have done in all this time is that there is a very
evident style that comes through, and humour is one of the key aspects of my
poetry or verse. It is a very rare thing, you know, to be able to maintain
humour consistently in your work. Of course, it's never really appreciated
by the so called establishment, but then, I never got into poetry and the
arts in general to become past of the establishment. Respectability has always
been the death knell for the arts, yet, curiously it still remains a hugely
enticing beast for a lot of the so called poets and artists that reside
here. Whatever, let them have their respectability. I'll plough on.
Oh, another thing, I have been
putting together chapters of The Heraclitean Principal , my
fourth novel and which will finally tie up The Deplorables
Trilogy of books which begins with The Fetishist. There is
a novel competition held in London annually in the spring and if I have it
finished by then, I will submit it. But, it may take me well into the
summer to finish this most crucial of novels which will be mainly set in
the eighties in Cork.
There ya go now boi!
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