Conamara Blues

In this new collection of poetry, John O'Donohue explores the natural and emotional landscape of his native Conamara County, revealing a pastoral vision that is both personal and universal, mystical and of this world. O'Donohue's instinctive awareness of the contrasts of his land -- its places of light and darkness, its movements and its stillness -- is magically brought to life in his richly lyrical yet deceptively transparent language.

Translating the beauty and splendor of Conamara into a language exquisitely attuned to the wonder of the everyday, O'Donohue takes us on a moving journey through real and imagined worlds. Divided into three parts -- Approachings, Encounters, and Distances -- Conamara Blues at once reawakens a sense of intimacy with the natural world and a feeling of wonder at the mystery of our relationship to this world. Whether exploring the silent, eternal memory of Conamara or focusing on the power of language and the vagaries of human need and passion, O'Donohue tenderly reveals the fragile vulnerability of love andfriendship. The result is a musical, transcendent, and deeply moving series of poems that exemplifies O'Donohue at his finest.

Written with penetrating insight and distilled transparence, Conamara Blues offers a singular and lasting imaginative vision of a landscape of hope and possibility -- powerfully exhibiting the mastery of a poet at the height of his lyric powers.