Website Preamble

Poetry has to be sharp, incisive, critical. It must be socially realistic and address the essential issues of the day, in our society and across the world. In the early twenty-first century these consist first and foremost of climate change, environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity. In addition, there are the more general themes of social justice between the global north and global south and the continuous major conflicts, which plague so many countries at present. One cannot hold back on these issues, half-express and half-criticise them; one cannot mince one’s words here. For instance, on climate change poetry has to address the matter directly, perceive its ramifications and speak out clearly and unadornedly about what is ahead of us, especially given the rollback of concern about climate change visible at present (early 2026).

The individual voice of a writer depends crucially on the use of language. As a scientist, a language scientist, I subscribe totally to the tenets of “plain language”. Poetic language should never be convoluted, still less impenetrable or obscure (I have tried to put my thoughts on how poetry should should be composed and presented, see the item ‘Return’ in the group of the same name). This is not to say that poetry should not be open to different interpretations, indeed to be inherently ambiguous. It can allow the reader to reach varying interpretations of one and the same piece, see items such as ‘The Lost Friend’, ‘Rock and Sand’ or ‘Tree and Ivy’ in the present collection. Via a careful use of language a poem can draw the reader into an imaginative space in which they find emotions and thoughts articulated, which they may well have had an inkling of previously but never found expressed elsewhere before.

In the poetic landscape of Ireland, which we have after Yeats and Heaney, writers have to find their individual voice and themes of their own, or at least their takes on themes, which are recognisable in a style and an approach uniquely theirs. If they are not successful here then their writings are likely to be viewed as just poor reflections of greater work, and ultimately uninteresting.

In a way, it is not too difficult to find themes not addressed by the great poets of Ireland. W. B. Yeats was writing his romantic poetry, and also his later tougher, more muscular verse, during a long period in which there was extreme poverty across Ireland and especially in Dublin: the slums of the capital were among the worst in all of Europe at the time, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yeats did not address the causes and/or manifestation of poverty in Ireland. Seamus Heaney died in 2013; he had published some five volumes of poetry after 1990, a time by which environment and climate awareness had become widespread and was entering public consciousness across the world. But none of these issues were touched in his poetry which reaches well beyond Ireland in its themes and scope.

For a writer today there is an inherent danger in dealing with the global challenges which we face at present: it can easily sound as if the writer is lecturing readers. This criticism is indeed in part valid, and you may feel that when reading the present collection, but the situation is too serious to hold back and be too timid in its depiction. So bear with me on this point when reading the following items.

The poetry in this collection was written over a period of more than two decades and reflects a development in my views on the urgent environmental and social problems facing us today. The collection is organised in two parts. Part I addresses the issues of climate change and social justice directly. There are some 60+ poems which address different aspects of these two major themes. They are given in a particular order, and ideally should be read that way, with the opening piece ‘All the Time in the World’ setting topic and tone for later pieces in the group.

Part II contains poems which continue the themes of Part I, but also broaden out somewhat in their immediate topics, in some cases deriving from the natural or the animal world. There is also a set of poems, in the group labelled ‘Crossings’, which were inspired by a number of paintings which I have been attached to and impressed by for many years. The section ‘Affections’ speaks for itself: the items here are of a private nature, but hopefully address matters which could be of interest to others. They are presented here for what they are worth. Like the other items in the present collection, it is up to readers to decide if they are of any value. Finally, the section ‘Return’ deals with the task of writing poetry and how readers may react the outcome of this activity.

Raymond Hickey
April 2026

All the Time in the World (all poems of the set)

History’s Shadow

This collection is one which means a lot to me personally, given that the overarching theme is something which I believe in strongly, namely the futility of violence. Many, but by no means all, of the poems are reactions to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to the late 1990s and, like the first collection, were written during a period covering more than two decades. The poems here do not take any particular position, there are no Catholic or Protestant stances in evidence, but rather the position is always one which exposes the senselessness of physical violence.

This collection also casts a wider net – seen in the section Lives Lost – and addresses issues of violence - of various kinds - beyond Ireland and Irish history and although the final item Little Folk does have an Irish background its message could equally apply elsewhere.

History’s Shadow (all poems of the set)

Four Polish pieces

These pieces stem from my personal attachment to Poland, a country which I have known now for many decades. The poems are serious, dealing with Polish history, which has been marked by great suffering on the part of the Polish people, but also by their resilience and determination to maintain their unique identity and culture within Europe.

In the Tatra Mountains At Treblinka

Death in the Forest Artic Grave

Jabs and Jibes

Satirical poetry is not common in recent Irish writing. The great poets, Yeats and Heaney, did not compose any. In fact, Heaney rejected satirical poetry as merely reactive. But I don’t think this is a valid criticism. After all, you can maintain that all poetry is reactive in nature, if only to some inner thought or mood of the writer.

Satirical poetry is different from othertry. For one thing it rests heavily on form and structure. It may be rhymed, but not necessarily so. However, it must be clearly metrical and have an easily recognised rhythm which best comes to the fore when read aloud: then the sequence of strong and weak syllables carries the poem forward.

Another major feature of satirical poetry is that it either succeeds or it doesn’t. It’s either good or bad. If the latter, it is useless. And the decision on its possible success is easy for readers to make, it either catches their attention and reaches them or it doesn’t. This I think is the main reason why many poets do not engage in satirical poetry: if it doesn’t succeed, i.e. reach the reader immediately, then you can just throw it away: burn your pages and/or delete your files. With non-satirical poetry readers’ judgements are less final, less absolute: yes, a nice piece, but perhaps not something I would wish to return to.

For satirical poetry, a writer needs a strong sense of irony, including self-irony. Neither Yeats nor Heaney had a marked sense of irony (from what we can gather) and evidently did not express any in verse. In prose, the situation is quite different: Joyce had precisely the sense of banter and irony, which is the pre-condition for satirical poetry. He did try his hand at this very early on (in his Gas from a Burner) but did not continue in this vein. His later poetry is traditional and conventional, in no way comparable to his prose. The other great satirical writer of modern times is the novelist Flann O’Brien, who held a mirror up to the mores of post-independence Ireland, but he did not produce poetry, as far as we know.

It is rightly expected of satirical poetry that it entertain the reader. Its value beyond this can be found in the sting in the tail which it contains. The clear criticism, social or political, which comes through as the “message” of the poem, usually towards the end, is more readily accepted by readers when the language it is couched in is delightful and engaging.

Jabs and Jibes (all poems of the set)

Four Views of the Irish Harp

The Celtic harp is an instrument with a long history in Ireland and is cherished as its national musical instrument. The following four pieces are intended to illustrate a few aspects of harp practice and playing.

Companion The Pincher

Practice The Lady’s Hairslide

Postscript

I suppose everyone tries their hand at poetry at sometime in their life. It looks easy: poems are short and you don’t need to have had special training before you start. But there are a number of things to consider here. The two main questions one can ask oneself before embarking on such writing are the following: (i) could the poems you write be of an interest to a stranger, i.e. why should someone, who does not know you, read what you have written? (ii) would a stranger reading your poetry wish to return to it and read it again? Answer these questions honestly for yourself before you spend time trying to write poetry.

If you wish to proceed consider whether what you wish to say has not been said before, and better, by someone else. Whatever your poetry must be, it must be different from what already exists. Pay great attention to language, a sense of style is quintessential to writing poetry of any value.

Publishing poetry is not easy. The market is small and the margins for publishers are slim. It is difficult for publishers to sift through all the material sent to them and find something they consider worth publishing. For that reason nearly all publishers require that writers first find an agent who is prepared to represent their work. But there are very few agents who claim to consider poetry submissions; in fact, even those who do, often just ignore material sent to them. But if you are successful in finding an agent, then you will be expected to have already won an award or prize for your work. I personally don't think that winning a prize for writing is any guarantee of its value (I have seen too much work over the years which I didn't find deserving of any award). Entering an award for poetry is like playing the lottery: your chances of winning are close to nil. In my opinion, the value of writing - poetry, plays, short stories, novels - is ultimately decided by the reading public. Time will tell whether people wish to return to someone’s writing and read it again. And no amount of self-promotion, media presence, pushing by publishers, awarding of prizes, etc. is going to alter that simple fact.

In the Tatra Mountains	At Treblinka
Death in the Forest	Artic Grave