The Oratory of Light

A rich and rare approach to the mystical and the ‘miraculous’, the strange but real parts of a life that float between earth and heaven, mud and glory … Beautifully achieved with a subtle beauty, music and growing intensity that makes a fruitful vine of the whole.     
John F. Deane

St Columba, or Columcille, and the island of Iona are the inspiration for James Harpur in this book of delicate lyric poems. Delving into the stories of the saint – including visions of angels, struggles with Picts, and various miracles – Harpur mingles his own poetic imagination with the spirit of Columba and the landscape of Iona: the result is poetry full of spiritual freedom and redolent of an age of wonder in which the natural world and the elements were perceived to be in harmony with the divine.  

James Harpur has published seven books of poetry and won a number of awards, including the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize and the UK National Poetry Competition. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of the arts, and lives in the wilds of West Cork. www.jamesharpur.com