Fans prevail on Dan to publish poems

WHEN your ever-increasing audience demands a book you know your poetry is striking a great chord with people.

That’s what prompted poet Dan O’Connor to finally collect his poems in a single publication - Poetical Works of Daniel O’Connor – being launched later this week.

The Knockanure native, who lives in Tarbert where he writes the local notes for The Kerryman, had long dabbled in verse as a hobby sparked in his downtime on the road while travelling for business over the years.

“I never planned to publish my poems, but some time last year I starting publishing a poem every day on Facebook. I started getting requests from Facebook friends to publish the poems in book format. I thought about their requests and decided to publish,” Dan told The Kerryman this week.

Inspired by everything from the natural world to times past, the book is set to secure an even bigger audience after its launch this Saturday, February 18, at 7pm in the Community Centre in Tarbert. It marks the second publication in recent times for the prolific Tarbert writer.

Dan has been pursuing the muse for quite some time, but failed to keep track of his work for many years as he explained: “I started composing verse and song back in 1963, but most of those poems were for friends and sadly I never kept a record of them.

“I spent a lot of my life staying in hotels as I was a company representative most of my working life. I starting scribbling lines to pass away the evenings after finishing my calls.

“I generally used the day to day experiences I encountered as a springboard for my poetry.”

Photo by Frank O’Connor. Tarbert Kerryman notes writer Dan O’Connor with his new book of poetry - which will be launched on Saturday at the Community Centre in Tarbert at 7pm.