Crossing Borders by Joe Campbell a new collection of Landscapes and poetry, published by Guildhall Press, Price: £11.95

Available from http://www.ghpress.com

“Joe Campbell said his cancer diagnosis was the catalyst for Crossing Borders, a collection of his poems and paintings produced over the past 20 years and more,that makes you inclined to read and look in a certain way, to see this work as a summation, to consider it in a fading light.

And that might make you judge it with a patronising sentimentality it doesn’t deserve. There is a coolness and distance in the beauty of the work, but also an intense belonging. This is a man who grew up in Derry with the “malevolent background grind” of army helicopters above him, but who recognised the youth of the soldiers who searched him and wanted to break down the barriers which held people apart. This collection is personal, political, intense, honest, and uncertain. There is humour and waste and an acknowledgement of failings. And there is a sense of the absurd right next to a yearning for more important things, and all the while Davy Crockett rides around and says it’s cool for cats. Campbell’s work is urgent, removed, and beautiful…”

Dominic Kearney, Irish News.

Crossing Borders is a debut collection of poems by artist Joe Campbell. A unique tapestry of beautiful images and honest experience, it is an artist’s view of life. It is also deeply personal. Described by Campbell himself as “more like painting with words than creating verse” the poetry deals with difficult, stark, life experiences such as: cancer; the troubles and bereavement and juxtaposes verse with paintings gleaned from over twenty years of professional work.

Born and reared in his native city of Derry, Campbell’s painting also reflects a deep sense of place. The images are portraits of a city and its hinterland and pay homage to its natural beauty. The collection is a blend, with poems that draw on history, distant memory and emotion and with paintings that seek to provide a visual respite and establish an empathy and common ground with the reader.Crossing Borders is above all human, deeply rooted in real life experience, a collection born out of trauma.