UCD Belfield Metaphysical

‘UCD Belfield Metaphysical: New and Selected Poems’ contains two previously published collections ‘Plainchant for a Sundering’ and ‘Breakfast with Sylvia’ along with Kiely’s most recent poems published in magazines, journals and newspapers in Ireland, England, and the United States. The new poems under the ‘metaphysical label’ resonate beyond the ‘refinement’ of language as wordscape. The metaphysical quest varies in each poem as the work of a poet whose lines are ‘given’ rather than engineered into position to achieve certain effects. The poetry mirrors the fleeting recognition of the universal metaphysics evoked, made present and living. The lines in their final form and content register the intensity and boundless openness of the poems. Kevin Kiely, like quite a few of his literary contemporaries, has a reputation as strong in Europe and the US as it is here. —James J. McAuley The Irish Times Kiely’s style—and the liberty of his voice—has more to do with those few Irish poets who have been exposed to a working European modernity; the work is given its head, allowed to find its own form. This is dark, almost Gothic stuff, not for the poetically squeamish. —Fred Johnston Poetry Ireland ReviewKiely jolts us into another dimension of language, where speech is worked like molten metal, throwing off sparks.—Barbara Ellis Iota (London) Here poetry redeems itself in Kiely’s assured perspective. The title poem is in two parts which, if they were music, must resonate of Bach. —Tommy Frank O'Connor Studies Successful is his series about famous artistic personalities. The mix is eclectic: ‘Requiem for Kurt Cobain’ sits between ‘Who's Afraid of Ezra Pound?’ and ‘Skimming Sam Beckett’, while Ovid, Buddha, and Coleridge all inspire poems of their own. —Val Nolan Poetry Ireland…