Poems from Heartlands is an evocative collection of poetry that explores faith and contemporary life. What inspires you to write and publish this collection?

I have been writing poetry for a long time and finally felt I had to get the material published, I had previously published a collection, The Last Irish Romantic, which was launched at the Listowel literary festival and the response inspired me; it was described by Gabriel Fitzmourice, the noted poet as reminiscent of T S Eliot and Michael Hartnett , and the noted Dublin publisher Pat Boran who published it for me described it as a work of distinction. This inspired me to write a sequel that would draw on the vast corpus of poetry I had accumulated over the years.

What inspired you to create this Special Illustrated Color Edition?

The color edition – I was inspired to publish the special color edition, by the fact that I had so much art work interwoven with the poetry in my notebooks, and wanted to produce a unique distinctive collection with both printed poems and handwritten works within my own art work, I called the result art poems and it turned out beautifully

What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in your poetry?

The ideas that inspired the poems were as varied as my life that they embodied, my faith, my concerns with contemporary life, my memories of childhood in Ireland, my experiences in Oxford where I did my doctorate, and experiences as a lecturer in Israel and the Philippines where I worked, and above all my faith struggles as a priest; my whole life and soul went into the poems.

Are you working on more poetry that you’ll publish in another volume?

I am about to publish a new collection of “art Poems”, to be called “Journeys into Light: New Art Poems”, I think this collection is better than the two previous ones. I am also about to publish a novel call The Cottage.

Author Website: frconbuckleyssundaysermons.com