JGHeraghty | Poetry

Hey everyone,  It's no secret I have not been around in a while.. my apologies. Let me catch you up - the Pandemic happened and I found a couple of new hobbies. HappyHousing was born and is getting raised by the minute. We went on a whole series of adventures last year, I can't wait to write all about them. I learned a lot about myself and how to become the person I have always focused toward being, and it's going well so far, I'm making great progress. So today, I wanted to talk about somethng different. A lot of my writing has been in the form of poetry over the years but if there is anything I have learned most about myself it's that I kind of see things with rose-tinted goggles, romantising life. I realise my view is my art - I think Shane taught me that. He doesn't take many photographs (and I always complain about it), but when he does, they are spectactular. I mean, they're from his angle, his perspective and they're worlds apart from the photogra...

The day I wrote this next poem, I started writing this post. I have written many drafts. Each version filled with anger, confusion, a little dash of denial, splash of oversharing. Primarily defeat.  I thought by releasing The Essence and the Detail , I had said all I needed to say about the people and events of the past few years. But I guess not. Funny thing how we think we can just shut our eyes and keep out the blaring light.  It's difficult to tell a story without actually giving specifics, I'll tell you that. This next one is about a relationship I experienced a few years ago, while I was inside the relationship, I was screaming to get out, but did not know how to. I forged characters in my poetry in an attempt to say it out loud, but I failed miserably. And though years have since past, it doesn't get any easier to speak up. To say that, however, is to form a paradox from the poem itself. Freedom can mean many things. For me, to have been freed meant I was back at the...

Happy Thursday guys! Some time has passed since you heard from me, I did say I would be infrequent here. I have actually made some progress however with my poetry book. It's a work in progress and I believe it's going well so far! Something about me many people don't know is that I'm political. I'm a democrat, with a modest understanding of the republicans. I don't talk about it much because it makes for awkward conversation. Short breaths, steam coming from the ears of my recipients. Trust me. Treacle. Although I know this, I have dabbled in a few political poems over the past few years, centralising on the Irish rebellion and, well, general Irish politics. But in some instances, I have found myself squishing world political points into my stanzas, soaking in what the media feed me, venting through the letters. I have some passionate opinions on American politics and even more on European. Between Brexit and Trump, I feel my head imploding slowly. Tha...

Happy August Guys! It's been a while since you last heard from me. And in that time, I've changed a lot about myself. I told myself I was finished writing. I felt like it was draining all the happiness out of me. It was as if I needed to focus on the negatives in order to see the deeper side to things. And thus, write about them. I convinced myself it was the end. But then, it was as if the universe was screaming at me to change my mind, when I was sent a 'recommended for you' post in my email. It was an article on why creative minds are more likely to become depressed. It was about a lady called Nancy Andreasen, a neuroscientist and author of The Creative Brain , who believed that a creative person should embrace their creativity, rather than shutting it out. She believes that depression occurs due to a persons reaction toward the world, and creative people tend to be less adaptive to situations. They question and wonder, and as a result, they can develop depress...

Happy November guys!  Recently I've been thinking a lot about time. Every now and then I get an overwhelming sense of dread and fear of time. How little we have, how easy it is to slip away. You wake up one morning and realise four years have passed. And, alright, you are making progress. You have made it from A to B. But so quickly, so obliviously.  With this sense of dread, there are times when I'm standing in the middle of my day and I wonder how I got there. How I got up that morning, how I'm dressed up and presentable. It's no struggle to get out of bed, or be present. My mind has brought me there, but my spirit has crawled behind. To eleviate this evercreeping dread, I tend to go out of my way to be involved in life, filling up the calendar, making plans and projects. It's a routine, and it's pleasant. And I'm happy, because why wouldn't I be? But sometimes, my spirit catches up. Paves the way and creates a gloriously lit path, and when it does I f...

Hi guys, I'll save the apologies, it seems as though I'm going to be continuously intermittent on the blog as the months pass. I do miss writing, and I do miss you guys. You really isn't a poem I intended on writing, but I'm glad I did. You see, in the midst of writing The Fictional Dependency series, I found a multitude of locked up emotions and amazing memories that I wished to share. Some were real, others were intricate reflections of my thoughts, ideas, dreams and feelings. Sounds of all volumes. Images of all colours. Everything I pour into my poetry has meaning, and with this one, it has a meaning I don't want to have. It has a memory of a time before I became who I am now. It has a purity of feelings and an outstanding debt. It has a version of me that did not follow through in detail, only in essence. Through all my successes and failures over the past few years, I have found myself here. Perhaps my future is still vibrant, perhaps I don't unde...

Hi guys, I'm making my grand entrance into 2019 with this next one, it's called Evader . If I had an explanation of a scenario for which this poem applies, I would share it with you. The essence of it stems from many times I've experienced in the past.. but finding one to share with my readers was difficult. I guess we all go through things in life that we never share, but I've noticed it sometimes helps to at least understand the mind-frame, vibe, emotional state or environment the people around us have found themselves in before. I feel it helps to understand their soul, ahead of their human cloak. Anyway, since you last heard from me, I have visited the trenches of my mind various times. I dressed in armour, brought my guns and ammunition and hid it out for a bit. But no one shot first, and then no one retaliated. So I stood up, shouted out and the echo was horrifying. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm my own worst enemy and I've been attacking m...