Poetry from my Heart by Paul Guerin

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Five things you’d never guess about Paul Guerin

You would never guess my humble beginnings

As a very young boy, I lived in a small Irish townland village community. We were on the poor end of the spectrum and living in poverty meant surviving day by day. It was a humble beginning and we lived in a two-room hovel with no running water and no toilet facilities [“We were poor as poor can be, in a house with a broken floor, no running water, nowhere to pee and a single bed and not much more”].

As a four-year-old, my job was to walk to the town square and fill a pail of water for our daily supply. It also was our only source of hygiene. Often there was little to eat [“Nana cooked on the smoky hob, with a fire of turf and a big iron pot, pig’s cheeks in cabbage did the job, a simple life with not a lot”]. I survived by the grace and loving kindness of an old Irish grandmother. I called her Nana.

You would never guess I was born in Ireland

My Irish roots are where my poetry came from. It didn’t happen right away as I was grabbed up and taken to live in England at age 6. In England, I had enough to eat and lived in a home with an actual toilet and running water. But emotionally I was in continuous free-fall, and I had nightmares for years about being wrenched from Ireland. The resultant trauma was the genesis of many of my poems, where I was able to express my deep and darkest feelings and share them with others. I dedicated a section of my book to Ireland and whenever I go back there, I feel I am home [“Ireland bound I am again, flying through the wind and rain, the Emerald Isle is calling me, to relive childhood history”].

You would never guess I am a poet

My creative writing abilities were dormant for years, buried inside until I was able to find and accept a sound level of emotional freedom. After that, it took many more years of soul-searching for me to come out of the literary closet and admit that YES, I am a poet and I have stuff to share with you, some of which you will most definitely find personal and sensitive. Deciding to “let the inner poet emerge” was not easy. The fear was that I would not be taken seriously. I felt the fear and did it anyway!

You would never guess I am an accountant

I had no masterplan for what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was a survivor. It was mostly “one day at a time” for me during my teen years. In my late teens, it was suggested I become a doctor or an accountant. As I wanted to get on with making a living rather than spend seven years in medical school, I chose the accountant route as the fastest way to reach my financial goal. The accounting profession generally has worked out well for me. Over the years, I have gravitated more to the entrepreneurial side of business than to the books and records side and I have always been more comfortable with creative thinkers than with the bean-counter mentality [no disrespect intended]. Poets are romantics whereas accountants, by nature, are far removed from romanticism. In my own case, I have leaned heavily towards the creative side rather than to the numbers side. Now that my Poet Persona is out of the literary closet, I would hazard a guess that you won’t believe I am an accountant.

You would never guess I am this old

As the years fly by and the number creeps higher, my tendency is to fall into a state of denial about my age. I am guilty of thinking that I shall live forever. But as poetry is ageless, the feelings expressed in the poems will withstand the test of time. That fact at least will keep me young in your eyes!

So, you’ll never guess by reading my poetry, that I may be a little bit old!

Thanks for hosting this guest blog and I hope you enjoy my book.
Warmly
Paul Guerin

Poetry: writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience, in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Poetry means different things to different people. For me, it is all about feelings. If it captures the emotions of the reader, a poem will resonate and fill the soul. It can mean everything to one person and not much at all to another. The mood of the reader and no-one else determines the outcome.

For example, love poems are wonderful when you are in love and their passion is amazing. If you are facing adversity, however, love poems likely will just annoy or even anger you.

In "Poetry from my Heart", I have attempted to divide the poems into categories which will fit your mood no matter what you are experiencing at the time you choose to explore them. There should be something for everyone, no matter whether you are in love, out of love, you hurt, you are lonely, angry, abandoned, or you are facing other challenges in your life.

Poetry has a healing power that nurtures the soul and quietens the mind, and so I hope that whatever your situation is in life, you will find something here that helps you safely on your journey.

Read an Excerpt

Like Eagles soar

You inspire my soul to reach the highest peaks
You light up the world I live in
With light so bright it dazzles and shines
Until all that is impossible becomes real

And the things I do are easier now because your love
Has made me strong and willing to risk
That which before I would have left untouched
And the results are amazing and stunning

I stand in awe and I laugh at myself
For ever doubting that I could not reach
For the highest peak and touch the stars
And find the apex of my soul

You have inspired the very best in me
To reach and seek my authentic self
To take a stand for what I believe in
To have the courage to trust in myself

And to believe that my dreams can come true
You have shown me how to fly with you
And to join with you with wings spread wide
Soaring into the sunset to meet the new dawn.

About the Author:

As a very young boy, I lived in a small Irish townland village called Castletownroche. The village was situated in the very beautiful and pastoral County Cork. I had an Irish uncle who played in a showband and who taught me to fish at age four. I wrote a poem about that. My mother was absent and I never knew my father. I wrote another poem about that. We lived in abject poverty. I survived by the grace and loving kindness of an old Irish grandmother sporting a black dress, black shawl and a wicked temper driving a razor-sharp tongue. I called her Nana.

Nana taught me to fear her retribution and used it to keep me safe and provide security that I could find nowhere else. Well into my teens, my inner world was cast in fear and I had no real sense of belonging or attachment to anyone or to anything. The inability to handle those feelings eventually led me to substance abuse. My journey along that road has generated much of the poetry of adversity, hope, and inspiration that you will find in this book. I truly hope that those poems in particular will salve the souls of those of you who are still trudging that happy road to destiny on your way back from hell.

Not surprisingly, I have had difficulty in maintaining healthy relationships throughout my life, and much of the love poetry is about those failures and many, many, sorry attempts to return to love. Those painful/happy experiences had a major influence on my writing.

Connect with Paul Guerin

WEBSITE https://paulguerinpoems.com/
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/paulguerinpoems
GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60876796-poetry-from-my-heart

Buy a copy of Poetry from My Heart

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