‘My poetry is inspired by the heart and soul of life’ - Emma

I loved to perform poetry as a child, on the local community stage or competing at the Feis - getting into the guts of what the poet was trying to say in their written word - I was hungry to deliver their message to an audience.

When I was older and had found some poems of mine, written perhaps when I was about 10, I recognised that tides DO turn - and that I was not only a performer but a simple scribbler also.

Today, I write, firstly for myself to hold an occasion in my life and not lose it. I play games with words and see where it brings me. Am I ‘paying attention’ or ‘playing attention’?

I visit an art gallery, wondering what painting will grab me to trigger an emotion, and insist that I bring my poem on a similar journey via the formation of words.

I share the history of a piece of music from the 19th century, a sonata, and bring my perspective to bear on it, creating and showing sensations in words.

One poem may be about coping with sadness in life, releasing this tension yet focusing by the end of the poem on what has to be considered as positive.

Always remember though, as a poet one can draw on life around oneself but ‘poetic licence’ allows alteration and changing to create interest, hold attention, and explore a philosophical side.

People write love poems who have never written a verse before, and surely I couldn’t resist. Nature. Trees, pine-cones, birds and skies, sharing my experience of the moon. Like I said, firstly writing for myself but when brave enough, I began sharing with others - beginning with The Echo and then the Holly Bough.

Juggling a career and parenting, I still found time for this passion of mine, and when I was introduced to creative writing by UCC, this honed my skills, pen and paper became alive and I raced after it.

Encouraged to submit more poems to newspapers, journals and magazines, I considered myself lucky each time a new one was published. Are people enjoying my work?

Matthew Geden was a truly exceptional mentor - the writer in residence in 2020 for Cork County Library and Arts Council. When he realised how many poems I was getting published, he encouraged me to consider putting together a poetry collection.

Well, what poems would I choose for a collection?

I could see from looking over my work that I was observing life around me, taking on such topics as love, relationships and nature, I could see my work maturing. With much rhythm and rhyme threaded throughout, I could also read much alliteration.

With a good mixture of poems - contemporary work, sonnets, villanelle, haibun, tanka, haiku and concrete poetry - it was apparent that one item stood out, ekphrastic poetry.

What is ekphrastic poetry? It is a vivid, often dramatic description of a visual work of art.

I love art exhibitions, old, new, bring me to any gallery and days later the effect it has is still fresh and exhilarating, inspiring any number of poems.

I also had a number of my poems illustrated by artists in MTU Crawford College of Art & Design - thanks to the support of the wonderful head of the college, Rose McGrath, as I wanted in some small way to bring the arts together.

So, enough poems, enough variety, and when Revival Press Publishers wanted to take on the project and were willing to include images of the paintings in the book, I knew this would be breaking new ground.

Inspired by the heart and soul of life around me, love and nature, various paintings by Spanish, Canadian and Irish artists, even Jack B. Yeats and local photographers, with poems of mine illustrated by Crawford College of Art & Design, my debut collection, Poems, Lost & Found, was born.

You are invited to a fun event with Thomas McCarthy launching Poems, Lost & Found at Cork City Library on Saturday, October 18 at 3pm. Enjoy some music, finger food and readings. You will be able to obtain a copy of the book, signed if you wish, that evening - thanks to Patricia Looney, of Cork City Library, a wonderful woman, for her support of the literary world.

The collection can also be found after the launch on www.limerickwriterscentre.com in the online shop of Revial Press.

John Ennis, who won the Patrick Kavenagh Poetry Award in 1975, the Listowel Open Poetry Competition 11 times, and the Irish American Cultural Institute Award in 1996, said: “As sure and nimble-footed as the lovers of Hold my Hand, the poems of Emma Clohessy’s debut collection are proof of a very special talent.’