Killurney based writer Jenny Cox launches her debut collection of poetry - A Life To Be Lived

Caption: The cover of Jenny Cox's debut poetry collection A Life To Be Lived. The illustration of a female body overlaid with the topographical map was created by Jenny's sister Vicky.  

Writer Jenny Cox’s debut poetry collection, A Life To Be Lived, is a moving celebration of life, love, family and nature interspersed with poignant reflections on personal grief.

The Killurney based writer’s collection of 34 poems was officially launched at Clonmel’s Raheen House Hotel on Friday, February 24. The event was attended by more than 50 family, friends and fellow members of the local writing and arts community with the Cedartowns providing musical entertainment.

Jenny’s introduction to writing poetry was through her involvement with Clonmel Applefest Spoken Word events and Poetry Trail and editing of the festival’s Wild & Wonderful poetry anthology, which she also contributed to as a poet.

The poems in A Life To Be Lived are divided into two sections – Human and Nature.

They are beautifully written. Jenny’s elegant and spare writing style explores with simplicity but also great depth and insight universal themes like grief and love.

Poems like, Solstice, and, Little Black Shoes, in memory of her little sister Lizzie, who died at the age of five, just take your breath away.

Others, like Sacred Place, and Ketchup are evocative, nostalgic recollections of baking with her grandmother and family meals as a child.

While poems such as Donaghmore Church - August 2022, Starry Night and Apple Tree delicately capture the beauty of the world around us.

At the launch, Jenny said she was “dead chuffed” and “very proud” to publish her first book.

As mentioned, a number of the poems in A Life To Be Lived are dedicated to the memory of her late sister Lizzy, who passed away when Jenny was nine-years-old.

Jenny said Lizzy’s passing was a grief present with her for her whole life, though she noted it was not necessarily in a negative way as “our grief evolves with us” and “different life stages give us different views on everything, including loss”.

“I feel that I'm finally at a stage as a writer where I can do the subject of grief justice, hopefully not in a maudlin way, but in a way that people can connect with and understand.

“And I have tried to balance that with poems about life, love, parenting, nature, ketchup, Lego!”

A selection of the poems in A Life To Be Lived were recited at the launch by Jenny’s family members and writer friends.

Jenny read, Maps, from which the book’s title is taken and the collection’s final poem, Maris Piper. She explained that Maps is about loving yourself, scars and all and is written for her daughters, Lily-Anne and Rosalie.

The poem inspired the illustration for the book’s cover, created by her sister Vicky.

“I think her interpretation of it, the female body overlaid with the topographical map, is so beautiful and so clever, and it really speaks to a lot of people.”

She said Maris Piper was originally inspired by the horrific Tuam babies scandal and explores how the secrets we bury will always find a way of coming to the surface. “But it evolved into a much lighter look at the ongoing cycle of life.”

She paid tribute to her husband Philip, mother Deirdre, sister Vicky. her friends in the Wild Scribes writing group as well as Carrick-on-Suir creative writing tutor and writer Margaret O’Brien for their support.

She thanked fellow Wild Scribes member Eileen Acheson, who acted as MC at the book launch, for getting her involved in Clonmel Applefest and its literary events that really opened up the world of poetry to her.

Jenny acknowledged the Clonmel Junction, Clonmel Applefest and Clancy Brothers Music & Arts Festivals and the “amazing women behind them” for providing a “platform for writers and artists to share their work”.

And she thanked her online writing workshops tutor and mentor US based Jan Haag, who guided her in putting together the poetry collection and gave her generous feedback.

A Life To Be Lived is printed by Lion Print and costs €12,50. It is on sale at The Bookmarket, Clonmel; Tudor Artisan Hub, Carrick-on-Suir; The Book Centre, Kilkenny, and from Jenny Cox via Instagram link: https://instagram.com/
contentbycox

Poet Jenny Cox (centre) pictured with her proud mother Deirdre Delamere and sister Victoria Tammadge at the launch of her debut collection of poetry A Life to Be Lived at Raheen House Hotel in Clonmel