Landlocked Laois writer’s new book celebrates the joys of surfing
An image from the front cover of John Whelan's new book 'Stoked', which will be launched in Abbeyleix
A WRITER from doubly landlocked Laois has taken an unlikely plunge, with a poetry collection celebrating the joys of surfing.
John Whelan, aka Johnny Renko, happily concedes that the world is full of wonderful poems but few if any are about surfing, certainly not by someone living in the only county in Ireland bordered by counties without a coastline.
The unlikely scenario is part of the exhilaration for this surfing author, who is on the crest of a wave with his debut collection of poems titled .
The Timahoe resident was a late convert to his passionate pursuit, taking it up in his 40s in places ranging from Tramore to Rossnowlagh, with Lahinch his favourite destination.
He says: “It would be an exaggeration to say that surfing saved my life but, at a certain stage in life when you have to give up team sports - and I never took up golf - you need something outdoors, physical, something that requires your focus and attention to take your mind off everything else.
“Surfing literally allows all that stuff that stresses and clutters up and messes with our heads to wash over. I can barely swim and can hardly surf but I have never gone to Lahinch without coming back feeling better about myself, in myself and everything else that goes on in our lives.”
The new collection’s title poem is an exuberant ode to surfing, a sport John describes as “the ultimate immersing in nature experience, being at one with yourself and the elements, the environment around you”.
He says: “I cannot overstate the enjoyment, energy, exhilaration, that feelgood factor it provides every time and that’s the essence which inspires ‘Stoked’. It’s cathartic and uplifting and that’s the exciting opportunity that I am trying to capture and share.”
Other poems in the collection similarly celebrate the therapeutic benefits of embracing and valuing nature and landscape, with a particular emphasis on midland bogs. Two are translated into Irish, with the title poem also translated into another Celtic tongue, Galician.
John explains: “One of the really enjoyable aspects of this project over the past two years or so is the enthusiasm and fun from collaborating with so many other creative talents, such as the encouragement from Amanda Kelly and the Power of Words open mic ‘family’ in Abbeyleix; getting permission from Mickey Smith in Cornwall to use his photograph of his friend Fergal Smith getting barreled off the west coast; the Irish and Galician translations by Cormac Ó Dúlacháin and Xan Guitian in and the tremendous input from designer Gavin Cowley and Martin Connolly, with the typography and printing. It is this team effort, this engagement that combines to bring the poetry to life and gives it energy.”
The book will be launched in Preston House, Abbeyleix at 4pm on Sunday 9 November, in conjunction with Power of Words Open Mic. All are welcome.
There will be a further reading from the collection upstairs in the Whiskey Lounge at the famous The Palace Bar in Fleet Street, Dublin on Thursday 13 November at 6pm. There are also plans for a reading in Lahinch, with details to be confirmed.
John says the collection is heavily influenced by the irreverent, introspective, self-deprecating styles of Paul Durcan and John Cooper Clarke, with a nod to the agrarian traditions of Kavanagh, Heaney and Máirtín Ó Direáin.
The poems are inspired by a for nature, the landscape, friendship and the frailty of the human condition.
Other books by the author, under his creative pseudonym Johnny Renko, are (2010), (2018), and (2021). A former journalist and newspaper editor, he also writes the popular travel blog .
