Books Lewis Regan Poetry

THE BOOKS

Frontiersman

Frontiersman, the third collection of poetry from Lewis Regan, tells of an inner pilgrimage driven by an outer suffering that leads Regan back to the world that formed him, where he finds the healing necessary to face the crises of the present.

"I will go, I will carry my wreath stripped of petals,

To my father’s garden where all flowers live again.

There on my knees I will pour out my souls long confession,

My father has secrets that triumph over grief,

I will go, I will say to him at least with my tears,

‘Look I have suffered’.

He will look at me and beneath the changes wrought in me by time,

Beneath my unenchanting pallor,

Being my father, he will recognise me,

He will say,

So it is you, poor grieving soul, does the earth not support

Your errant ways anymore?

Dear soul, dear son, I am your God, be no longer troubled,

Here is your home, come into my heart, come in oh Mercy.

Oh sweetness, oh holy refuge,

Oh you have heard your weeping child,

Already I feel secure,

Because I hope for you,

Because you possess all that I have lost,

You did not reject the flower whose beauty has faded,

That earthly crime is forgiven by you in heaven.

You will not curse your fatherless child,

Not for having sold anything, but for having given all."

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The Forgotten Heart of Ireland

The Forgotten Heart of Ireland is the second collection of poetry by Lewis Regan. Beginning in medical school and tracing his experiences while working as a doctor in Ireland. These poems are portraits of people and places, both internal and external. They offer the unique perspective of a man in flux and finding himself displaced in his own land during the boom and bust of "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. They are written in the spirit of and Overcomer - a spirit that resides in us all.

"The needle threads with fingers unseen,
The in, the out between,
The blank canvass to the naked eye
A garment, a coloured peacock design,
A beautiful woman.
It hangs on some wall in some house, museum
For she is meant to be seen,
But who is the artist that threads the needle?
Who is the artist who holds it?
How many threads within the thread that makes the thread?
So that what is created is done
By everything that remains unseen."

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Poems To Goodbye Meadows

Poems to Goodbye Meadows is a unique collection of poetry by Lewis Regan. Reflecting his childhood in rural Ireland, the transitions of youth's first loves found and lost and the memories we keep with us and that make us who we are.

Regan paints a deeply rich and lyrical portrait of his origins in the Irish parish of Kilcloon, the Gaelic “church of the meadow”, and of the years after he left there. Goodbyes are often forced upon us but how we choose to remember the things we have lost is what we create and live with.

"Fading colours shade in lightly the twilight round my youth,

And whisper goodbye gently for my love for you is sooth,

I miss with heart’s mixed feelings every moment as you pass,

And while the colours of your meadows change,

All things must, alas!

The innocence of childhood, the credulity of Mass,

The friends who came and played with me and left before I’d ask,

Are visions now more splendid and cherished in my heart,

For I never knew the secret of the present until it passed.

All my suffering and laughter from my heart to you do go.

These I’ve moulded into statues, made only of the words I know,

In your wisdom you’ll remember in a way I cannot know,

You will keep them in the present however old they grow.

And my refrains you will echo as your winds across me blow,

In you I learned the seasons how to catch the joy that passed,

I shared with you infinity while all things else did pass,

I love you Goodbye Meadows - as I walk before what’s passed,

Goodbye Meadows I go with you, Goodbye Meadows I now pass."