When poetry is a curse and a gift

Aidan Murphy mines the events of his life, good and bad, for his poetry, writes Colette Sheridan.

"Poetry is both a curse and a gift. But even when it’s a curse, it’s something I keep being drawn back to,” says Aidan Murphy. The Corkman has a poem in a new anthology of 100 Irish poets, The Deep Heart’s Core, edited by Eugene O’Connell and Pat Boran. Each poet revisits a favourite poem of their own, with a commentary on its inspiration.

Murphy’s chosen poem is ‘Touching Parallels’, which is about communication and appeared in his first collection, The Restless Factor, in 1985.