Homage

Mícheál Fanning''s Homage salutes family, friends, and special places of Ireland (Inishfallen, The Skelligs, Nollaig i gCnoc Mellary and Gallaras), but his tributes are not merely local. They extend to the Middle and Far East, and include biblical, mythical and historical figures such as Abraham, King David, Solomon, Achilles, Odysseus, Paris, Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf and Daniel O''Connell. Fanning''s love of philosophy is manifest in his homage to Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Spinoza and Hegel. As Fanning sees it: The Word is evocative and piercing against the backdrop of uncertainty.Homage is the final part of the trilogy Beyond Our Fears: Part I - ''Verbum et Verbum'' (Salmon 1997); Part II - ''The Separation of Grey Clouds'' (Salmon 2002).Praise for ''Verbum et Verbum'':"''Verbum et Verbum'' is a masterful poem, its human concerns, stylistic dexterity, learned vocabulary and confluence with visual sources anticipated by poems in the six preceding sections call up not just an historical milieu but an entire cosmology and its concomitant world view."Poetry Ireland ReviewPraise for ''The Separation of Grey Clouds'':"A fascinating journey through history and mythology. Readers will return with deepening interest again and again."Brendan KennellyMícheál Fanning practises as a medical doctor in County Kerry. As well as his books from Salmon, he has published three chapbooks and two translations. His books in the Irish language are published by Coiscéim under his Irish name - Mícheál Ó Fionnáin. For the past number of years he has directed Féile na Bealtaine, an arts and politics festival, held annually in West Kerry.