What a wonderful lift I got when the postman arrived this morning in a snowy-slushy, yet-to-make-up-its mind spring season in Timahoe.
There it was, suitably well wrapped-up, as if predicting the turn for the worse in the weather better than even Met Eireann itself, the latest collection from Portlaoise poet, Pat Boran.
‘Then Again’ with its curious cover, published by Dedalus Press and a gift of Pat’s last book, ‘Waveforms – Bull Island Haiku’ thrown in for good measure.
A literary bribe of sorts in a brown envelope, which although adorable and exciting and most welcome, entirely unnecessary, as I have been a big fan of Pat Boran’s work for years.
I can’t wait to tuck in and read it, out loud and proud of our very own Portlaoise bard. Launched on Shrove Tuesday and food for the soul this Lenten fast.
“What do you want to be when you grow up,” the teacher in the Tech in Portlaoise may have asked and for Pat Boran, whose folks ran ‘Airboran’ a travel agents on Main Street which was flying it for yonks.
The answer must have always been, “A poet, sir,” from the scrawny teenage boy who cut his teeth and cut a dash David Byrne style busking ‘Talking Heads’ tunes on Bull Lane. Poetry has always been the rhythm to which Pat Boran moved.
To be fair, he would have been egged on and well encouraged at home and by mentors like Michael Parsons the Vocational School Principal back then and I can even see the hand of Bill Phelan, an inspiration of sorts, in the poem, ‘Lining Out’ which features in this collection.
The poem, a homage to all those who togged out to play GAA and especially those who may not have excelled or been first pick, took on a new life all of its own when promoted from ‘Sunday Miscellany’.
It went viral as part of the RTÉ coverage build-up to those All Ireland clashes between the mighty Dublin and Mayo, as the poem itself tackles the thorny relationship between the victor and the vanquished.
Boran’s range is quite astonishing. From treasures in museums (hence the cover image on his latest publication) to paintings in galleries and churches, from first impressions of the unfamiliar to fresh takes on the well-known-and-loved, the triggers behind the poems in Pat Boran’s seventh collection in the main departs from the poet’s autobiographical trademark.
Instead in ‘Then Again’ his focus is very much outwards, with the poems comprising a mini Odyssey that takes in parts of Ireland, Paris, Sicily ,Cyprus and elsewhere, finding along the way the echoes of earlier discoveries and deeper concerns.
The book’s title acknowledges both the unexpected returns and the subsequent re-evaluations that memory occasions as it makes new connections between present and past, between our personal journeys and our shared fate.
Nevertheless, I am glad to say that it still has scope for the inclusion of ‘Bus Stop’, ‘Dysart Woods’, ‘The Big Freeze’ (inspired by a visit to Emo Court) and ‘The Bandleader’ an ode to Dick Sides and the St Joseph’s Accordion Band, all which will have a particular local resonance.
Poet, writer and broadcaster Pat Boran is one of the best-known of his generation of Irish poets.
He has published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose – among them Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku (2015), A Man is Only As Good: A Pocket Selected Poems (2017) and his latest, Then Again (2019), as well as the memoir of growing up in Portlaoise, The Invisible Prison (2009) and the popular writers’ handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop, now in its fourth edition.
Boran is a former presenter of The Poetry Programme and The Enchanted Way on RTÉ Radio 1, and he works part-time as a literary editor.
He has edited numerous anthologies of poetry and prose, including, with Gerard Smyth, the bestselling If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (the Dublin: One City, One Book designated title for 2014) and, with Eugene O’Connell, The Deep Heart’s Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poems (2017).
Volumes of his poetry have been published in a number of languages, Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian, most recently Japanese and Portuguese – o sussurro da cords / the swoosh of the rope (trans. Francisco José Craveiro de Carvalho, edições Eufeme, 2018).
He is a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s affiliation of creative artists.
Pat Boran’s latest collection, ‘Then Again’, will be officially launched this Tuesday, March 5 at 7pm at Poetry Ireland, 11 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. All those interested are most welcome.
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