Kevin pens ‘a hearthy blend of home truths, healing and hope’
Kilworth resident Kevin McCormack has recently published his second collection of poetry, ‘Soup for the Wounded – A Hearthy Blend of Home Truths, Healing and Hope’.
The collection of 52 poems was collated over a number of years and follows on from the success of his 2021 collection, ‘Verses Versus Verses’.
“It’s a collection of previously unpublished stuff. It’s contemporary, Irish, and I don’t intend it to be anything other than what I would write,” Kevin said.
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Themes within the poetry feature mental health, recovery, hope, some social commentary, some heresy to add an adult flavour and is peppered with contrast.
For Kevin, however, the preface in his new collection describes exactly who his intended audience is.
“This collection is dedicated to those who are honest with themselves. Those who take ownership of every part of who they are – the parts that jump up and down demanding to be heard, and the parts that sit trembling in corners. It is dedicated to the realists, idealists and dreamers, and to those who strive one moment at a time to get well and stay well. I love you all,” it reads.
Featured are some current poems, as well as some penned five or more years ago at a time when Kevin was tending to his own mental health, and some poems which have been in the writing process for as many years.
“I’ve always had a love of poetry, writing, words and language. I’ve always had an interest in it”, he said. “I’ve never taken any creative writing classes or that kind of thing. The only poetry I was really exposed to was in school, when the teacher would be trying to make you learn a poem and nine times out of ten, it would have the direct opposite of the intended effect,” Kevin said.
Despite this, poetry appears to come naturally to Kevin who uses his own experiences and the world around him as inspiration.
Working as a mental health peer support coach and as a civil celebrant, Kevin also spent almost three decades working as an actor on both stage and screen, which may lend to some of the themes within his written work.
The recently released collection, entitled ‘Soup for the Wounded’, is currently available to purchase online at www. buythebook.ie or at Hanley’s Newsagents in Fermoy.