Frank Gillougley

Cadzow Bridge : Introduction

The process of writing CADZOW BRIDGE was 2 years in the making. The medium of images and text is used throughout the book.

The Book of Lamentation is unashamedly autobiographical in that it deals with the writer's disassociation from life due to his separation from his family. The poems chart the writer's disassembling of his adult life when faced with this unconscionable trauma. This experience culminates in the literal poem 'i remember' where the 'story' is finally revealed to the reader. The writer only hopes that he has avoided any sentimentality in his recording of this process.

Like his Scots Irish forbears, he finds himself uncannily repeating their steps in crossing the Irish Sea time and time again to visit his family, carrying his 'unconscious' . As the philosopher Ortega puts it 'Life is not something I interact with. It is like a vagabond carrying his bundle'.

In The Days of the Republic, the writer reflects on the cyclical nature of time and on his experience (over a calendar year) within the context of his overall 'environment'. He charts a metaphorical journey between birth and death and refers back to generations before him. Ultimately, in the last optimistic poem, there is a need for himself to reinvent a new life.

Frank Gillougley is the author's pen name.

Copies of the booklet (53 pages), which also includes a further long section not shown here, can be ordered by sending a cheque for £5, made payable to Paul McCormack, to the following address:—

Paul McCormack
Acht Tag Press
30 Hollandbush Grove
Hamilton ML3 8AL

Alternatively enquiries or comments can be e-mailed to him here.

Read a review at NHI online of Cadzow Bridge and its succesor, The Common Divine here.