The November Poetry Book Group will be meeting via Zoom
Monday, November 21st • 6:30 PM ET / 11:30 PM IST via Zoom
Session open to all: no registration required.
Click on this link to join the Zoom session
Find out about Solas Nua's Poetry Book Group and titles list
Join the Book Group's Facebook Group here!
The ‘space’ of John Kelly’s second collection of poems is, to begin with, the marvellous unknown that fascinates his younger self. But it’s also very much an earthly realm – the place where daily life occurs, the small territories each of us claims and clears, and from which we attempt to make sense of the world.
As with space, time too proves elastic, and full of openings onto unexpected discoveries. ‘It’s not that I don’t know where I am, exactly,’ one poem begins, only to travel back some fifty years, prompted by no more than the barking of a dog.
While the past insists on casting its shadow, and certain spaces reveal themselves as traps, the poet’s memory is nevetheless drawn to the light, to the stars, to the comforting presence of the dead, and to the many birds that move throughout these pages.
Intense, full of humour, and with the poet’s eye for the telling detail, these poems take us from the wonders of the everyday to the deep and mysterious spaces beyond – and beyond again.
About the Author
John Kelly is a poet, fiction writer and broadcaster, born in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. His poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The New Younger Irish Poets (Blackstaff Press, ed. Gerald Dawe). A novel, From Out of The City was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Bord Gáis Book Awards, and a radio play, The Pipes, was broadcast by RTÉ. He lives in Dublin where he works in broadcasting. In 2018 Dedalus Press published his debut collection of poems, Notions. The follow-up, Space, is published in May 2022.
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Greenwich Mean Time.
