One Cross to Bear: Humanity through Narrative Prose.

By Greg McVicker

Poetry comes from deep within and reaches out to touch another's soul. Personal narrative poetry immerses the reader in the poet's journey through life, in such a way that the reader is drawn into those experiences and can share in the poet's feelings of elation or sorrow.

Whilst a reader may experience a personal bond with the author's compositions, those feelings can be shared with thousands of others all over the world. Poetry is a gift – unguarded thoughts unleashed by the poet with readers he or she may never know. That is the beauty of writing.

Using his distinctive style of storytelling by way of stanza and prose, Irish Poet and Author, Greg McVicker, dives headfirst into the turbulent cycle of life. In "One Cross to Bear", his latest collection of poetry, he takes us on a whirlwind journey of his years growing up in his native Northern Ireland, up to the present day in Canada. Poems such as; "Belfast City Asylum" and "Everlasting Homesickness" paint a vivid picture of growing up in war-torn Belfast, and the pain he endured at being torn away from all that he knew in order to start a new life in a safer, but foreign land. Greg writes unashamedly from the heart, reaching out to his readers and carrying them along the waves of an emotional tsunami. These poetic stories have and will continue to affect untold numbers of individuals throughout their lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Belfast Child Publishing
• Release date: Nov 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781775162476

Greg McVicker

Irish Author and Poet, Greg McVicker, was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during a period of sectarian hatred and a violent, political war known as ‘The Troubles’. In his professional career as a Social Worker, Greg is unwavering in his efforts to shed light on various experiences that people have in their daily lives, both individually and collectively, but are often left to suffer in silence. Using his distinctive style of storytelling by way of stanza and prose, Greg dives headfirst into the turbulent cycle of life. He writes unashamedly from his heart, reaching out to his readers and carrying them along the waves of an emotional tsunami. His poetic stories have and will continue to affect untold numbers of individuals throughout their lifetime.

Book preview

Introduction

When I made the decision to write my second book of intricate storytelling poetry, it was one that I was quite eager to get too. Since it had been quite some time from when I had first composed such intrinsically deep, yet delicate pieces that speak to the human journey of life, my mind was brimming with ideas that were simply begging to be written about. So, here we now are with that collection for you to not only read, but process.

At the beginning of this book, your eyes will come to feast on poems entitled ‘Preventable Death’, ‘Beneath Golden Arches’, ‘White Feathers’, and ‘First Year Anniversary…’. Each of these pieces were composed in 2015 and 2016, yet their relevance across the lifespan are as important today as the day when I decided to put text to paper and breathe life into them.

I should note that the poem called ‘Stolen Identity’, which now graces these pages, was written in honour of a fellow author who is acknowledged at the back of this book. I guess that shortly after writing that piece, my creative juices began flowing which lead to the composition of ‘Everlasting Homesickness’ and ‘Belfast City Asylum ‘, along with my first attempt of penning Irish folklore and mythology within the legendary tale of our Irish lad, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, and the ‘Giant's Causeway’ as seen through my eyes.

Within two weeks of this and in hitting the road on August 19, 2017 with my fifteen-year-old son, Ciarán, who was attending the WHL Calgary Hitmen Rookie Training Camp, this provided me with the perfect opportunity to scribe these pages. Within one day of driving, both ‘Beggar's Boulevard’ and ‘Cave Hill’ were composed. A furious frenzy of writing began, and continued right on through to the following two weekends at his main training camp with the Virden Oil Capitals. ‘In the Name of Religion’, ‘Banshee of Dunluce Castle’, and a composition to my beloved pet dog, ‘Brandy’, along with twelve more pieces, I felt that the book was very much complete. But then came the design of the cover.

While choosing an image, I reflected on the personal inscription I write in my first personal memoir, ‘Through the Eyes of a Belfast Child: Life. Personal Reflections. Poems.’

‘In life, we all have a cross to bear, and a very unique story to tell; we just hope that someone will take the time to listen.'

Finding an image of a Celtic Cross in ruin seemed to capture what I am trying to get across in this and my memoir: not only do each of us have one cross to bear, but those same objects hold on to our scars throughout life. Whether on our sleeves and faces for the whole world to see, or perhaps tied in with the intricate knot work of who we are, our thought processes, grief we have dealt with, relationships that have helped shape us, or the footprint that we leave behind when our names whisper in the breeze. The defining characteristics of that cross represents something special in how our stories are depicted individually, yet speak collectively across countless generations who may have had similar experiences to our own. This brings to light why I have chosen the images that I have sourced to accompany each narrative poem, along with paragraphed quotes from my first memoir, Belfast Child.

Thus, and after you read this book, I invite you to drop me an email or comment with your thoughts on how the cover picture speaks to you. My hope is to release a short book based on those comments which will be entitled, ‘The Bare Cross' in that how we relate and speak to the world around us is quite different from the weight of the world on our minds.

In closing, these were my own thoughts when I first came across the image that is now displayed on the cover...

"As an Irish Poet an Author, Celtic Crosses are very much a part of our culture. To me, the cross in the grass seems broken, but resilient. Forgotten, but has memories. Unattended, but at peace. Not only does it give meaning, it very much defines various aspects of my own existence. Although the footprint that each of us leave behind is considered unique in its impression, it is shared with perfect strangers who become acquaintances through poetic inscription. After all, in the human experience called life, we all have One Cross To Bear."

Sláinte mhaith agus go mbeannaí Dia dhuit!

Good health and God Bless!

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Preventable Death

I had seen through my own eyes the remnants of many First Nations who frequented the downtown core of Winnipeg. Substance misuse was rampant among those living on the street, although the word living" is quite a generous one – barely surviving would be a more accurate reflection. One has only