Kevin McManus is a poet from County Leitrim in Ireland. In 2021, he published a poetry collection entitled “The Hawthorn Tree” with Lapwing Publishers, Belfast. He has also had poems published in several international journals, including the London Grip, the Catamaran, the Honest Ulsterman, the Fortnightly Review, the Galway Review, the Cormorant, Dreich, and An Aitiuil.
In 2022 his poem “Lost Souls” was adapted into a short film and won the Blissfest film festival in Chicago. The film was also a finalist in the Cork poetry film festival and the Drumshanbo written word festival. It was also selected for the Los Angeles poetry film festival.

Hiraeth

Following the foylings,
of the forest fawn,
walking the same ground
as before.

A hunger for home at the edge of the land,
a place between earth and water,
the field and the river,
a wind that blows between the trees.

The pull of the sea
and the lost forgotten faces,
an opened hand,
a touch that lingers,
an echo of a past
that might not have been,
a love we never really knew.
Yearning for a touchstone,
a longing for belonging.

Hiraeth, a craving that we’ll carry forevermore,
a reminder of the home we are all searching for.

By Kevin McManus