Books

  • Books:
  • Carnivorous
  • Blood Horses,
  • Beneath The Ice,
  • Snakeskin Stilettos,
  • The Horse's Nest,
  • Miracle Fruit,
  • Selected Poems,
  • The Goose Tree

About Me

My photo
Poet, creative writing facilitator, editor. Experienced mentor for those working towards a first collection. My publishers are Lagan Press, Belfast and Liberties Press, Dublin, who published my Selected Poems in 2012, The Goose Tree in June 2014. Blood Horses was published in 2018 from Caesura Press www.caesurapress.co.uk and a new collection, Carnivorous was published from Doire Press Spring 2019 www.doirepress.com Awarded an Arts Council of NI Major Artist Award in 2019

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Irrevocable Things

I was fortunate enough to recently have a poem win the North West Words Poetry Competition. Here it is - for anyone who would like to read it.
It is also included in the Spring edition of the North West Words on-line magazine






Irrevocable Things



We lead him to the chosen spot.
A bright day, without clouds,
autumn sun still holding its heat.
He trusts us; we’ve never
given him reason not to trust us.

The sky blue drug goes in,
we see him feel it hit
and then we watch helpless

the violence of his falling and terrible
tumbling over himself, his desperate
lurching refusal to stay down though
unable to stay up; it goes on forever,
until he’s prone at last and Claire
puts her hand over his eye and
he gives in to the shuddering darkness.
A bullet loudly, thankfully, finishes it.


 It has dragged the heart from me;
I want to cry wait horse, wait,
come back,
we’ll do it better, it was a kindness
that we meant.


 All the regret for every hurt I’ve ever caused,
sadness for everything I’ve ever lost,
is pouring through this rent, that wound,
his drawn back lips, his emptied eyes.