Two poems of mine Shrine and Footprints will appear in the Teachers’ Who Write anthology. It will be launched at the Waterford Teachers’ Centre on the 5th of December 2018 from 7 pm. I will be there reading the poems.
Book launch – A Thousand Sparks
Exciting times. My second collection of haiku will be launched tomorrow the 18th October at the Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square, Dublin. 7:30 pm. Come along if you are in the area. Looking forward to seeing you.
Promotional Video for the upcoming launch of A Thousand Sparks
The launch of A Thousand Sparks
My second collection of haiku, A Thousand Sparks, will be launched at the Teachers’ Club on Parnell Square, Dublin at 7:30 pm on the 18th October 2018. Please come along. 
Yeats Summer School Scholarship
I am delighted to have won a scholarship to attend the Yeats Summer School in 2018. The scholarship was organised by the Irish Writers’ Centre. The summer school will take place over 9 days in July. I am looking forward to it.
The Blue Nib publishes Dawn over O’Cebreiro
A poem Dawn over O’Cebreiro was published in the Blue Nib journal in April 2018. You can read the poem by clicking on the link below.
In the Bath: a poem
This poem won 2nd place in the Ballyroan Library Competition 2018.
In the Bath
I step in
and skin is scalded
the meniscus crawls up my face
my chest hairs are dancing reeds
my nose rests above the surface like a crocodile
silence is a muffled drum
a piano struck in a distant room
I listen to the slightest flicker of a finger
the shudder of shoulders
I run my hand across my legs and chest
touch is dulled by the water
I come back into the humid air
my eyes full
I speak and set the atoms dancing
Pass: a poem
This poem was highly commended in the Ballyroan Library Poetry Competition 2018. The poem makes references to places on the Dingle peninsula.
Pass
The air is clenched. Ember smoke guts
from the fireplace. We speak in staccato tones.
An anvil of guilt sits in my stomach
after last nights crossing of words.
For air and time, I drive to Connor Pass.
Fog clouds the road rendering
my map useless. A stream runs furiously
from Peddler’s Lake, slapping the cliff.
I return home and let the silence
sooth out an apology. You still read
the newspaper, turn it sharply. In my pocket
a compass twirls and twirls in frenzy.
Mariposas: a poem
The following poem Mariposas was published in the April issue of Boyne Berries. Here is the poem. Mariposa was written when I walked the Camino. It means butterflies in Spanish.
Mariposas
Around and over the path
are ten butterflies.
Delicate powdered wings,
blue, white and black.
They flutter towards me and away
and once nearly into my mouth.
A walking friend tells me they are souls
that choose to stay behind.
She said in the Gross-Rosen camp there were hundreds
craved into the walls of the huts.
I count the butterflies that came across my path
during the rest of that day and I lose count.
Winner of the Ballyroan Library Poetry Competition 2018
I found out that a poem of mine In the Bath has won 2nd place in the Ballyroan Library Poetry Competition. Another poem Pass was highly commended in the same competition. You can see photos of the events here at the following link. Also, the poems have been published on the Ballyroan Library website. The poems are also available to read here on this website.
Diarmuid Fitzgerald 