Four Suites: Poems on love, life and art

By Seán Gaffney

Seán Gaffney's interests in people, places and their art and music is evident in the four mini suites of this collection of poems.
The Caucasus Suite explores that mountain range, its shifting borders and boundaries -- all seen through the photographs of a female Russian photographer half Gaffney's age with the mountains holding metaphors for the complex relationship between the two.
Then comes Caravaggio with the spiritual resonances evoked by some of the religious themes he painted.
This is followed by the world we live in and its and our challenges.
Finally, the author considers the art and craft of his own writing. This is Seán Gaffney's fourth collection after Las Meninas, Family Matters and Aspects of Ageing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Freedom Xpress
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9789151974101

Seán Gaffney

Seán Gaffney was born and raised in Dublin and describes himself as Irish by birth, culture and conviction. He has lived and worked in Ireland, Scotland and England and has been a resident of Sweden since 1975. Professionally, he has a background in three main areas -- business, academia and Gestalt psychotherapy. His preferred position in all three is at the intersection of theory, method and practice. His Ph.D with the university of Derby, England is a typical example of this perspective, entitled On Borders and Boundaries -- Gestalt at Work in a Multicultural World. His own work has taken him throughout Europe, as well as the Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA where he has been able to indulge his interest in people, places and their art and music. These interests are evident in Four Suites, the four mini suites that was Seán Gaffney's fourth collection, published in December 2020, after The Las Meninas Suite (2016), Family Matters (2018) and Aspects of Ageing (2020).

Book preview

theme…

(2)

A metaphor awaiting meaning

– in itself a metaphor?

Okay so let’s face it me I mean this is to and about you and okay you and me our

Borders and boundaries my favourite theme you got dragged into maybe though

Free soul and body that you are fenced in by anyway a freedom even you kinda sorta

Could relax into and let your camera and Facebook do the talking as you wander in

Anyway chosen landscapes far from your Moscow family home lit at times I’m sure by

Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean sun and light and memories as well of the racoon in the zoo

Washing a sugar-cube into non-existence then searching for it in its empty paws like

Me with you perhaps or much more like Yeats and that girl in his acceptance