My poem 'When Will I See You Lord?' has just been awarded a 'FaithWriters Jewel of Encouragement'. 'When will I See You Lord?' can be purchased as part of my poetry book  'Ta!' at late for supper

Pre-orders are now for sale. Delivery date around July 2011

‘Twas 2008 when God blessed us with a trip to the USA, euphemistically known as America. What is that about, ‘one nation under God’ claiming the name of a whole continent as its very own? I learned on this trip that America was full of anomalies.

Don’t get me wrong, I survived it, loved it and ate too much. But as the fat faded from my belly, the juxtapositions trampolining in my brain just would not rest and I mean would not rest. I was tormented with such questions as ‘why is the mid-west neither in the middle nor the west?’ The great American phenomenon of therapy was needed. Hence ‘Clueless in America’, my self-medication, came into creation.

ISBN 978-0-473-18651-7                                          Price €14.39

Just to let you all know I have had two poems and two photos published in the New Zealand based, Asylum online literary magazine.  They are called Samsung 2010, Croatia 2010, Iniquities and Palanga. They can be found on pages 21-22.

Click on the picture to view the magazine.

I am, not sure how to word this one, but my poem Boundary Lines has been awarded a ‘FaithWriters Jewel of Encouragement‘ for recent works. This was in a general section, not just a poetry section.

Asylum, issue # 2 is out and I have one poem, titled Union Jack published on page 11.

Just to let you all know I have had three poems published in the first issue of the New Zealand based, Asylum online literary magazine.

They are Human Trafficking, Mustard Seed and Glasga in Me Veins. You can find them on pages 10-12.

Click on the picture to view the magazine.

I have won third in New Zealand's 2011 Robert Burns poetry competition.

Click here to read the poem on the Dunedin, New Zealand Public Library’s website.

Click here to read the Otago Daily Times newspaper article for the competition.

Or view below to read the poem.

Cheers Kel



Anomalously Tiree

Just a-roaming,
Just a-walkin’
Through the glens beyond Balephetrish Bay.
Straining my eyes
In the wind
Of the noon,
Whilst merely being stung
By the spray
Of the sea.

Aye it was an eerie day,
The silence
In the music
Was so
So deafening.

But my ear did perk
At the oddity of its quarry.
‘cause guzzling through the glen
On its way out to sea,
I caught the sound
Of a lone piper.

First I heard
The symphony
Of the wind and sea,
Accompanied by
Creation’s vigour and zeal.
Then the soloist pumped out a note
And the sound of the pipes
Swirled through the air.
The wind and the wind
Twirled their way
Down the valley
And danced together upon the sea.
I was left again joyfully stranded
In creation’s symphony.

But aye this wilnae be a surprise to some,
Och no.
There are others
Well acquainted with

The GHOST of Tiree.

He was a wild lad,
Adventurous you could say,
Loved his pipes,
Loved his dog
And cared for little else.

In the caves at Kenavara
There is a blowhole.
On a windy day, it spews
Its spray high into the air.
But at low tide
On a calm sea,
It is still enough for a wild lad,
His dog and his pipes
To slip down
Into the depths of the earth.

And that my friends,
Is exactly what
The lad did.

From the belly of the earth,
He struck up a tune
That rumbled the rocks
And awoke those that abode there.

With a gait in his step,
A sway in his kilt,
His pipes ablaze
And his dog at his side,
He embarked on the tunnel ahead.

They heard him in Heylipol
As he strolled the streets of Sheol and
In Crosspol the ethereal melody
Sailed upon the haze tacking across fields.
But it was Kirkapol
Where the locals
Heard another tune.

First one heard
Emanating from the earth
The tempestuous pipes.
A bark ensued and a
Scream followed
Paired with a conclusive yelp.

The pipes fell silent.
It was the kind of silence
That screams to be heard.
But no one heard it,
‘cause the wild lad
Was no more.

Later that day
In Milton’s monolithic bay,
The lad’s
Masterless mutt appeared.
Dead but alive,
Stunned and terrified
He crawled
From the belly of the earth.

He lay there on the grass
Closed his eyes
And watched the sun go down.
As the mongrel wafted away
To the place where the music went,
The earth once again
Resonated the lonely dirge
Of Tiree’s anomalous piper

Reduced to bone and gristle.
He never again
Witnessed
The sway of his master’s kilt.

Finally
In the eeriness
Of my afternoon,
The wind
And the wind
Piped through the glen,
Whilst in the belly
Of the earth
The ghost
Of Tiree
Piped by
One more time.

I now have a large calender with American Holidays.

The calender is full of beautiful flower photographs.

Price €19.68 or approximately $21.82
Please do check the exchange rate yourself.
Size: 13.5" x 19"
Buy Here from my Lulu shop.

The calendar can be viewed by clicking on the photo, and purchased at my Lulu shop.