Boyne Writers Group

The first issue of the magazine was officially launched by Minister for Communications, the Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey TD in the Castle Arch Hotel, Summerhill Road, Trim on 1 March 2007.

Foreword by Trim poet Tommy Murray

I am delighted to be associated with this first collection of work from The Boyne Writers' Group. Over the years as facilitator to Meath Writers' Circle I have edited a number of collections. This however is different in as much that it includes writers not only from outside the county but also from the world beyond.

So we have writers from France, England, Canada, India, Germany and Nigeria, all helping to give it a truly international flavour. From nearer home we have contributions from a number of counties including Cork, Mayo, Tipperary and of course Meath.

The overpowering impression formed from reading the work is of a group of people actually aware that aside from the hustle and bustle of everyday living there is another world, a world of creativity and imagination. It is clear too that one of the aims of the editor was to make the work a blend of new and well-established writers and as such to provide a forum for a wide range of styles and talents.

The eternal themes of love, death, childhood, pollution and the longing for solitude are well to the fore while Kate Dempsey's angle on married life in "Regeneration" will certainly set minds thinking. There is humour here too in Susan Gilbert's "Spectrum".

Reading these I couldn't resist the temptation to cherry pick, especially on coming across the imagery in Michael Farry's "Searching" – "Down a dim lane a vacant house stared glassless", or the graphic attention to detail in Paul Egan's story “"Jimmy".

The styles too cover a wide range, free verse, blank verse and the prosy poem tending to dominate at the expense of iambic and syllabic verse. If this magazine can convey to writers and readers alike that there is a world of creativity and imagination just waiting to be explored then it has justified its publication.

Tommy Murray
February 2007.

Figurine.

For years you stood in the shade
Unnoticed
Surviving several changes of wallpaper

Between the chipped milk maid
And the Cap-di-monti granny

The contours of your crinoline rigid
Hair set permanently under the cold glaze

Wide-eyed, aloof, alone in your world
Of bric a brac and dust

A lady of leisure too
Except for the odd job
Propping up a postcard
A paperweight

Until you fell
And picking up the pieces
We discussed your origins
An arm here, a leg there
And the aristocratic head still smiling

Spent nail-biting hours tending to your wounds
Moved you into the sunlight
Now, we change the wallpaper to match your eyes
Take you gently by the arm
Blow the dust from your shoulders
Pull your leg.

Tommy Murray

Download pdf version of Boyne Berries 1.