It gives me great pleasure to welcome back fellow Hedgehog Poet, Darren J Beaney, as he launches his new poetry pamphlet Machinery of Life. Darren is here now to tell you all about it so without further ado, over to Darren.
The Machinery of Life
Darren J Beaney
The majority of the poems in my new pamphlet The Machinery of Life were written for the dissertation for my MA in Creative Writing. The research tried to answer the age-old question – what is love? As part of my research, I read some interesting academic papers on love and one or two of them inspired a couple of the poems, I also interviewed (via Zoom and over a virtual pint) a number of blokes about their views on love and love poetry and some of their comments found their way into some of the poems.
What is love is a question that has fascinated scientists, philosophers, historians, playwrights, novelists, songwriters and poets for centuries. Well, this pamphlet of 23 poems of love may or may not answer the question, but it does offer some ‘romantic’ food for thought. The poems show love in many forms, as chaos and addiction, serious and fun. The poems try to convey that love can be the real thing, be peaceful, comforting and at times exhilarating.
On more than one occasion there are a few fleeting appearances from Eros and some of the other stars of Greek mythology. There is some philosophy, a smattering of humour, some self-deprecation (I had to be careful how I wrote that) and a bit of under the sheets risqué. I think that along the way it becomes clear that love is a splendid thing!
The Machinery of Life shows that love takes many forms and can be expressed in a variety of ways, it does not all have to be a cliché, wine and roses, gushing sonnets and stary eyes. It shows that love can be elegant, and it can be punk rock. It illustrates that no one should be afraid to show their love, even if the way they choose to do so is not considered the romantic way.
I had great fun doing the dissertation and writing the poems that ended up in The Machinery of Life, it may not give any one the answer to the question – what is love? But it may start to answer the question – what’s love got to do with it? (which was actually the original title of the pamphlet).
It has been an exciting few months for my poetry. Honey Dew was my first pamphlet, published in December 2020, and I have had 15 poems published in various anthologies, print and e-journals. I have plans for a full collection to be published at the end of this year and two pamphlets on the cards for 2022.
In addition, Flight of the Dragonfly (the spoken word event I co-host with my mate Barbara) has gone from strength to strength. It was shortlisted for a Saboteur Award; we have done two special launch events for 6 poets and have produced our very own e-journal called Flights.
Honey Dew and The Machinery of Life can be bought directly from Darren J Beaney HERE
About Darren J Beaney
Darren J Beaney has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Brighton. He co-hosts a regular spoken word night in Brighton/Zoom – Flight of the Dragonfly. He is a hopeless romantic! He cuts his own hair. He enjoys music, predominantly punk rock, but a lot of other sounds as well. His favourite author is Orwell. He has developed a thing for Greek mythology! He lives on the West Sussex coast, with his lovely family.
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Patricia M Osborne 