Kevin McManus is a poet and writer 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 Californian Catamaran, the Honest Ulsterman, the Fortnightly Review, the Galway Review, the Cormorant, Dreich, Impsired, the Lothlorien 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. Kevin has also published nine fiction novels, including his latest, Dark path to Vengeance, published by SpellBound. A new edition of his first poetry collection called “Spirits in the Forest” is now available on Amazon and all other major online retailers.

North Wall

In the quiet dawn of 55,
with a worn suitcase and a pocketful of hope,
boarding the cattle boat for Liverpool,
steam rising with the stench
from the poor creatures below,
mingling with the salty sea air,
and the lonesome cry of the gulls
he watched the shores of Ireland fade into fog.

Rebuilding post-war London,
with calloused hands and tired backs,
each brick laid in testament to resilience,
as days blurred into nights
in the haze of smoky bars,
where thousands sought solace
in the bottom of a pint glass,
the craic and the laughter,
a balm for homesick souls,
amidst the gritty landscape
of their adopted land.

As years unfurled like pages
of an unwritten chapter,
finding fragments of home
in the quiet corners of his rented room,
tracing the contours of his mother’s face
on a cherished photo
in the flickering light,
he realised that home was not a place,
but a tapestry woven from the threads
of half-forgotten memories.