Then Again with poet Pat Boran

Portlaoise poet and author Pat Boran has just published his latest book of poetry, Then Again, the themes of which span not just the globe but the gamut of human experience.

From treasures in museums to paintings in galleries and churches, from first impressions of the unfamiliar to fresh takes on the well-known and -loved, the triggers behind the poems in Pat Boran’s seventh collection in the main depart from the poet’s trademark starting point of autobiography.

Instead in Then Again his focus is very much outwards, with the poems comprising a mini Odyssey that takes in parts of Ireland, Paris, Sicily, Cyprus and elsewhere, finding along the way the echoes of earlier discoveries and deeper concerns.

The book’s title acknowledges both the unexpected returns and the subsequent re-evaluations that memory occasions as it makes new connections between present and past, between our personal journeys and our shared fate

Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise in 1963 and lives in Dublin. He has published six previously collections of poetry, while A Man Is Only As Good, a pocket-sized selected poems, was published in 2017.

Editions of his poetry have been translated into Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian and Macedonian. Awards include The Patrick Kavanagh Award and the US-based Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award.

He is a former presenter of The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1 and a former editor of Poetry Ireland Review. He is a member of Aosdána. (www.patboran.com)

His new book, Then Again, is available now from Dedalus Press, priced €12.50.

“A writer of great tenderness and lyricism ...” – Agenda (UK)

“Local and international, personal and scientific, full of wisdom and wry humour ...” – Irish Literary Supplement (USA).