Young Irish woman creates book to help others with grief and heartache
Valentine’s Day, 2020, is fast approaching, much to the aversion of singletons all over the country. And in a bid to help those who are currently struggling with recently becoming unattached, 26-year-old Tipperary woman, Amy O Connor, has launched her debut self-published poetry collection entitled ‘A Beautiful Complexity’.
A Beautiful Complexity is aimed at both males and females of any age who have been through a spell of loss in their life, particularly the loss of a partner but also the loss of a family member or a friend. The collection is an anthology that deals with the themes of love, loss and the journey through life following an unfathomable break-up. Amy was inspired by her previous relationships to express her emotion through poetry and following her last break-up, she decided to throw herself into a project of collating her work and publishing it.
“I went through a very difficult time with my last break up, just as many people have, so really what I wanted to do was publish a collection that let others know that they do not venture what they are going through alone,'' said Amy.
“A break-up can absolutely feel like grief, and I feel like a lot of the time the severity of what that person is going through can be brushed off by others. That’s why I think it’s important for people to have someone or something to turn to in their time of need and poetic words can be just that”.
Amy was inspired by the idea of being able to produce something that may help others understand what they are going through and know that they can channel their pain into something positive like a work project or art. Once she had set her sights firmly on putting a collection together, the process took Amy eight months, a lot of back and forth with designers, and a good chunk of her savings. But Amy felt like now more than ever, there would be a place for this collection in the world as poetry was becoming increasingly popular again.
With the revival of poetry among young people and the rise and prosperity of Instagram poets, the appetite for this art form is immense. Poets like Lang Leav, Rupi Kaur and Atticus have become giants in their field and have been an inspiration to Amy’s writing, but as she explains she adopts this style with her own added twist:
“A lot of my poetry is short just like the contemporary poets, as I do quite enjoy that style, but with this kind of terseness I think the skill is being able to add something special for your writing to hit home with the reader. And I do really enjoy the challenge of this,” said Amy.
A Beautiful Complexity is retailing at €10.70 for the paperback edition and €3 for the Kindle edition. The collection is available through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and you can follow Amy’s writing over on her Instagram page @aocpoetry.
