How do you start to develop the craft of writing poetry?
Well, I think it has to come from reading. When I got to University I was just really into books, and I pretty much read everything that we were asked to read. There were modules on novels, modules on poetry. We were having playwrights come in to talk to us and so on, but it was the poetry that really captured my imagination.
We were introduced to lots of genres of poetry, beat poets, Blake, of course, other poets. And then I took a module in “The Poetry of The Troubles” and that introduced me to Heaney and many others, and that really captured my imagination.
I could begin to see a way of describing situations which were grim and gruesome that was very beautiful, and imaginative. It was both close up but distant as well. It was very skilful. And I gained a real appreciation of Irish poetry during that period.
So were you writing, trying to produce your own poems?
I was writing the whole time but I think my reading gave me an appreciation of craft. I tried to continually improve my work.
I started submitting to magazines and journals from about 2014 onwards. And I did experience some success, in that respect. I remember being published in “Abridged,” which is a Derry based journal. I was very pleased with that because it was alongside Kathleen McCracken who is a wonderful poet.
I was also short-listed for the London Magazine Poetry Competition, which was a big deal then, given I had only been writing with any seriousness for a little over a year.
From there, Kathleen McCracken, who was a lecturer at University of Ulster, became my mentor and worked with me throughout my degree. We’re still very much in contact and she’s a great advocate of my work and very encouraging.
How do things proceed from that early success?
Well, around 2015, I actually stopped writing altogether. I experienced the death of a loved one and while most people tell me that grief can trigger a great outpouring of creativity and emotion, for me, it was very much the opposite. I switched off, guarded myself, and put everything I had into finishing my degree and becoming a teacher.
And then one thing followed another, and I met my wife. We got married, had children, and I just didn’t write at all.
How does that situation change?
Last year I just had this urge to start writing again. I think I was quite unhappy and I couldn’t work out why that was. And it was because I wasn’t writing. I didn’t have that creative outlet.
And I very much felt like there was unfinished business because I felt like I was really achieving something before I stopped writing. So I picked up again and I have kept on writing since I made that decision.
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