A poem a day keeps the soul in good sway

Every Day is a Fresh Beginning: Meaningful Poems for Life

edited by Aobhín Garrihy (Eriu / Bonnier Books, £12.99 / €9.99)

Once out of school and the demands of exams, most adults have little time for poetry. They are aware of Ireland’s poetic tradition, how could they not be. But these days most poetry seems to be concerned with matters that do not come close to the lives of ordinary people. Or at least that is what “ordinary people” seem to think.

Here, however, is an anthology which can truly be said to be for everybody. The editor was once a familiar face on Irish television, but she  is now living with her family in the west of  Ireland trying out a new way of life.
This anthology then is for all those who live or aspire to the same kind of active, yet insightful, life.  It contains some sixty-six poems, old and new, Irish and British.  Some will be familiar, some are classics, known even to grandmothers, and others will be quite new.

There is certainly great variety. There is a truly touching poem by Gabriel Fitzmaurice about the tenderness of long married life, but also that once famous  poem “We are the music makers” by Arthur  O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881), a memory of which I believe haunts the memory of every poet in English who has written since.

Indeed, it is one of the virtues of this book that it will arouse many readers to take a renewed interest in poems and poetry.  So perhaps these pages may well be the stimulus not only to a greater enjoyment of reading, but also to personal creativity.  Readers may be inspired to try something similar about their own lives.

Who knows? One never can predict the curious effects that poetry, taken up as a private passion, can have on people.