Séamus Ruttledge releases new poetry collection

‘Jackdaws Chant The Blues’ is the exciting new book of poems from Ballina native Séamus Ruttledge. The Tuam-based poet and songwriter (AKA Ruttlemush) is a great observer of life and this shines through the works this collection. Ruttledge’s poems are a journey through mystery, mysticism and the secrets of country people.

‘Jackdaws Chant The Blues’ celebrates country life with evocative imagery and occasional humour through poems like ‘No Flowers Please’, ‘Winter Is Nearly Done’ and ‘In Times Of Change’. Ruttledge expertly uses the ways of country life as a prism to explore conflict, nature and mystery. The impact of pop culture on the lives of young country people is addressed through poems like ‘Ways To Live’ and ‘Bowing In The Backroom’, but this collection is mainly an homage to life in rural settings.

A journey of discovery through times of change, Ruttledge captures mood and emotion with ease, drawing the reader into his world, almost as a co-creator. His observations are sharp, never overpowering. They afford space, like a musician uses silence between notes.

His poems draw us nearer to ourselves, our lives and our world. They make us think while also supporting us within the kaleidoscope of life in rural Ireland. They document change and aspects of a rural past where nature was supreme, but the struggle to make sense of what it means to be truly human in a complex modern world remains at their heart. The language is honest and the energy is sincere.

Reviewing the Ruttledge’s poems, celebrated author Mike McCormak said that they ‘come straight from a heart full of truthful songs’: “With grace and melody they sing us through past and present, love and loss, towards some greater understanding of who we are.”

‘Jackdaws Chant The Blues’ is available in store and online from Books ‘n’ More, Tuam; Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway; Pangur Bán Bookshop, Ballina; and The Bookshop and McLoughlins Bookshop, Westport.