New Offaly poetry book looks at uplifting moments in our lives

A NEW Poetry book looking at uplifting and transformative moments in our daily lives has just been published.
In “Gateway Visions in Offaly”, Birr writer Derek Fanning has written ten carefully crafted and beautiful poems which focus on his emotional and imaginative reactions to his experiences, no doubt sometimes echoing the reader's own reactions to the events of life.
The “Gateways”, when described in a certain way in the book, sometimes point to different societal epochs and the fashions of those epochs. As we think about these various periods in time we can find ourselves looking through books for hours and days, reading about the many different fashions, occurrences and modes of thinking during those periods. In this way, taking interest in a gateway can lead us to a whole educational undertaking.
Gateways in the book also sometimes show the possibilities open to our characters and our reactions to events. When we pass through the gateways we see the various human virtues and vices, including greed and cruelty, or empathy and making the difficult but right decisions; or responding to people in a sincere and decent way rather than in a sarcastic, cynical and judgemental manner.
The poems in Gateway Visions in Offaly also have a lovely lyrical sense, attuned to the beauty of words and ways of combining them for the most harmonious effect possible. For example, “The sun is gleaming on the red volcanic rock of Golden Island / And on the mainland's stones of grey the artist sits.”
Gateway Visions in Offaly is on sale in SuperValu, Main Street, Birr.