By the Hearth in Min A' Lea

That little daisy in a back of beyond street beamed at me cheerfully from a tiny crack in the pavement as I went by. It was late afternoon, and standing alone at the edge of the pavement, he gave a bright sunny welcome to me, an immigrant. That daisy, that eye of light, winked at me, and lifted my heart in a foreign city. I've stored that vision along with just one other - the first time your eyes shone at me, with the light of a lover. Cathal O Searcaigh is one of Ireland's leading poets, recipient of many major literary awards including the Irish Times Literature Prize, a member of Aosdana and, in Ireland, a well-known television and radio personality. Whether writing about the beautiful Donegal landscape, or as a gay man about the intense emotions of love, or about voices and events from the past that resonate in the present, or simply telling a story, O Searcaigh is always honest, clear-sighted and unafraid, lyrical, tender and funny: he tells it how it is. This is the first selection of O Searcaigh's poetry to be published by a British publisher and as such will be an introduction, for many English readers, to the startling freshness, energy, candour, and inventiveness of this most colourful of poets.