MAGPIE (2019)

Comprising 38 new poems from a man who has already issued one strong collection in 2019 (‘Beautiful Ghost’), ‘Magpie’ rounds off the most prolific of years for Johnny Monroe with a lyrical flourish that also bids farewell to an eventful decade. As the author himself explains in his brief introduction, no single poem contained within expresses a mood that the rest should be judged by. Each distils the mood of the moment in which it was written - one may be for sorrow and two may be for joy.

Wistful reminiscences of how we used to live contrast with searing observations of how we live now; reflections on love, loss and loneliness sit alongside celebrations of the little things in life that can bring the greatest pleasure. There is a universal potency to this collection, with the power to touch nerves, trigger tears and raise smiles. In other words, something for everyone.

If an overriding theme can be discerned at all, it is perhaps that of the daily challenge of traversing a path with more ground covered behind than what remains to be covered up ahead - one haunted by the ghosts of what has gone and plagued by the uncertainties of what is to come. The struggle to believe that the eventual destination will have made the journey worthwhile is one every traveller on that path is confronted by. And we are all on it. In this respect, Johnny Monroe is not a man alone.