The world is full of wonderful poems, but I am not sure if there are too many, if any, on the subject of surfing, certainly not by someone who comes from a landlocked location like Laois.

So says John Whelan – aka Johnny Renko, his creative writing pseudonym – who has taken the plunge with his debut collection of poems entitled ‘Stoked’.

The former newspaper editor, ex-Senator, political advisor, blogger, avid campervan enthusiast and now surfer is a man of many parts – and the title poem here is an ode to surfing, a pursuit he only took up in his forties in places like Tramore and Rossnowlagh with Lahinch being his favourite go-to spot.

“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 and surfing literally allows all that stuff that stresses and clutters up and messes with our heads to wash over,” he says.

“I can barely swim and can hardly surf but I have never gone to Lahinch that I didn’t come back feeling better about myself, in myself and everything else that goes on in our lives.

“Surfing is the ultimate immersing in nature experience, being at one with yourself and the elements, the environment around you and 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,” he adds.

Similarly, the other poems in this collection celebrate the therapeutic benefits of embracing and valuing nature, our landscape with a particular emphasis on the midland bogs.

Two of the poems in the collection are translated into Irish, with the title poem also translated into another Celtic tongue, Galician.

The overall collection is heavily influenced by the irreverent, introspective, self-deprecating styles of Paul Durcan and John Cooper Clarke, all the while with a nod to the agrarian traditions of Kavanagh, Heaney and Máirtín Ó Direáin.

The former newspaper editor started his journalistic career as a junior reporter in the Leinster Express in 1978 before moving into careers in a whole load of different directions.

Other books by the author are the Buddha of Ballyhuppahaun (2010), Growing Pains and Growing Up (2018), and the Last Beekeeper (2021). He also writes the popular travel blog Vanhalla Camper Heaven.

For further information or copies of the book email jwhelan@communicateireland.ie.

Pictured: Debut collection…author Johnny Renko.