Poet John Paul O’Connor of Franklin will be reading from his new chapbook of poems, “Mystery Station” Saturday, Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. at Delaware Pantry, 21780 state Route 28, Delhi.
The 29 poems in the collection are based on two rituals of the Catholic church with which O’Connor grew up.
Childhood itself is a mystery and the first section of the book, “Mysteries” concerns the mythologies of O’Connor’s childhood, his family and the New Testament stories referred to in the themes of the rosary, a ritual his mother led her seven children through on certain occasions like automobile trips and the Cuban missile crisis; fifteen poems, each three verses long of ten lines each. The “Stations” section of the book contains fourteen sonnet length poems and is a personal meditation on pain, loss and redemption, using the muse of the Catholic penance vehicle, the Stations of the Cross.
John’s first book of poems, “Half the Truth,” published in 2016, won the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry.
John is also a critically acclaimed songwriter whose debut album, “Songs for Our Times” was named one of the best albums of the year by the Washington Post.
