Poetry in motion

AHEAD OF THE LAUNCH OF A MAJOR POETRY ANTHOLOGY, THE COLLECTION’S EDITOR, FR OLIVER BRENNAN, TELLS ANNE CAMPBELL ABOUT THE JOY AND HOPE THE RIGHT WORDS CAN BRING

IT is, perhaps, apt, that Fr Oliver Brennan says that poetry has been a part of his life pretty much since he could read. And it’s a good thing that he loves poetry because the Louth native has spent nearly five years reading and selecting around 400 poems on the theme of a quest for God.

This is a major publication that brings together poets from around the world who write on the topic of searching for a higher power. It didn’t start out this big, as Fr Brennan explained. And it was by a nice coincidence that it came about in the first place.

Speaking from his home in the Armagh parish of Kilmore, he said: ‘It came about when I officiated at the wedding of Sarah Egan and Dr Todd Swift, poet and publisher. I became friendly with the couple and I would have used poetry a lot in my homilies over the year.

‘We got talking about writing and poetry and, as I had previously had books published, Todd suggested an anthology of poetry. I had some spare time and we started meeting regularly in Ireland and London, where Todd is based’.

Fr Brennan couldn’t have wished for more when the call went out, via the internet, for poets to submit their work for the collection. Thousands of poems poured in and the initial idea to have only Catholic-related poems quickly stretched to include Christianity and then every major religion.

Dr Swift, as the owner of Eyewear Publishing in London, also had access to lots of poetry which was also included in the selection process.

Included in the anthology, entitled ‘A Poet’s Quest for God’, is work from well-known names, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, but also many young, previously unpublished poets from all over the world, including from Ireland.

Some of them write from a faith perspective, while others write about their search for a meaning in life, their hunt for a new beginning.

It was a huge task to whittle the thousands of submissions to the ones that made the book, but it was a ‘ thoroughly enjoyable’ one. Fr Brennan said: ‘Seamus Heaney wrote that reading poems should blow your heart open’ and I have always found it very enjoyable’.

It was difficult rejecting those who didn’t make the anthology for reasons including that they may not have fitted the purpose of the book.

He said: ‘Some will be disappointed, but perhaps their work

FR BRENNAN SAYS HE HOPES THAT PEOPLE WILL FIND IT UPLIFTING AND FULL OF HOPE

can be used in another book. There are a lot of young poets included in our anthology because I wanted to find out what they were thinking and how they were searching for meaning and spirituality in their lives which are being lived in post-modern times.

‘And one of the good things I discovered during this process is that young people are searching for meaning in the spiritual dimension in their lives and are exploring that search through poetry’.

He’s also pleased to report that he believes poetry is enjoying a resurgence at the moment, thanks, in part, to the technological age we live in allowing poets’ work to reach around the world. But technology has a downside as well, with long periods of time in front of tech and computers sucking real meaning from lives . . . ultimately leading them on a search for ‘more than this’.

There has been a decline in formal religion over the past number of years, but people continue to search for a higher meaning - whatever is relevant to them.

Fr Brennan says he thought a lot about who the book is aimed at, and many of the poems can be read and enjoyed by ordinary people. There are, of course, some ‘academic’ ones, but the majority, he says, are accessible to those who ‘read them with their heart’ and read them a number of times.

‘Poetry is a bit like Modern Art - the meanings are not always visible the first ttime around. And it is certainly different to the poems that we learned growing up as children’.

The priest’s love of poetry is a life-long one. The words first fused into his heart when he was a child, and read Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems, ‘As Kingfisher’s Catch Fire’, which reveals how each human also has one distinctive, defining function.

It was a poem that spoke deeply to the young Oliver. ‘ To me, it says just be yourself and that gave me huge self-belief when I was younger. It still speaks to young people, telling them to be themselves, to be the best self you can be and not what other people think you should be’.

For all the reading of poetry throughout his life, Fr Brennan admits that he has not written much of it himself - none which has been published - preferring to continue to read other people’s work. He has been noted, throughout his ministry, for his poetic homilies in which he sometimes quotes poets’ work, but often reveals his own thoughts on topics in a beautiful way.

Looking over the anthology, Fr Brennan says he hopes that people will find it uplifting and full of hope. He also hopes that it will assist people in their lives, as they search for meaning and while there are a few poems about the darkness that journey to meaning can bring, the vast majority of the works are positive, showing others that no matter what happens in life, there is a meaning, a purpose, though it is not always clear at the time.

‘You have to search for meaning for yourself. And I think this book will help with that, offering positivity and happiness’.

The anthology has already been launched in London and in Maynooth, where the books have sold out, but Fr Brennan, a native of Ardee, is keen to launch it in Louth, where he spent many years and where he was parish priest in Blackrock and Heynestown.

He continues to have a lot of friends in the seaside village, where he spent 11 years as parish priest and people had asked him to launch the book in Louth. Tomorrow evening, September 20, he’s doing just that at the Ballymascanlon Hotel.

The hardcover edition, published by the London press Eyewear, has received glowing reviews in America, Ireland and the UK, and featured poems will be read by Fr Brennan and Dr Todd Swift.

There will be drinks at 7pm, with readings from the anthology starting at 8pm sharp. The book will be available to buy at the reduced price of €20 and everyone is welcome to attend. At over 350 pages, and handsomely designed, this hardcover book is an ideal Christmas, communion, or birthday present, and will be a cherished part of any family home library.

Despite the huge amount of work involved in getting ‘A Poet’s Quest for God’ edited and published, Fr Brennan is already sketching out his next work, which will be on the theme of spirituality, the search for meaning in life and what’s missing. It’s a lifelong search and one that Fr Brennan continues to do with, as Seamus Heaney said: ‘a heart blown open’.