Shades of Red - by Vivienne McKechnie

 

Shades of Red

A Poet’s Eye on the Ordinary and the Eternal

by Kieran Beville

Vivienne McKechnie

There is a quiet confidence about Shades of Red, the latest collection from Limerick poet Vivienne McKechnie. It does not shout for attention or rely on fashionable obscurity. Instead, it invites the reader into a world where the ordinary becomes luminous and where the deepest human concerns are approached with honesty, compassion and considerable craft.

Published by Revival Press, the collection gathers poems that move through memory, grief, love, loss, friendship, animals, history and the strange passage of time itself. The result is a book that feels both intimate and expansive, rooted in lived experience yet reaching towards larger questions about what it means to be human.

McKechnie, who was born in Dublin and has made her home in Limerick, is already well known in literary circles. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick and has taught English and Creative Writing in Ireland and abroad. Her poem ‘Today’ was selected for the Leaving Certificate English examination, introducing her work to a generation of students. Yet Shades of Red feels less like a summation of past achievements than a writer continuing to deepen and refine her voice.

A journey through four landscapes

The collection is arranged in four sections: Ravelled, Time's Gifts, Paw Printed Patterns and Now. The structure gives the book a natural progression. While each section has its own mood and emphasis, together they create a larger narrative arc. There is a movement from recollection towards acceptance, from looking backwards towards living more fully in the present.

The titles themselves suggest many of the concerns that occupy McKechnie’s imagination. Time, memory, relationships, mortality and the traces we leave behind appear again and again. Yet the collection never becomes gloomy or self-absorbed. There is always a balancing tenderness, often accompanied by humour and a keen sense of observation.

Finding poetry in everyday life

One of McKechnie’s great strengths is her ability to uncover significance in apparently ordinary situations. The first poem in the collection, ‘The Conundrum of Coal’ provides a striking example. What begins as a mathematical puzzle becomes a meditation on the lives hidden behind statistics and calculations. While others solve the problem, the speaker imagines the workers themselves: their marriages, hopes, loneliness and hardships. It is a poem that reminds us that every abstract figure conceals a human story. The shift from arithmetic to empathy is handled with remarkable skill. What might have been a simple classroom recollection becomes an exploration of dignity, labour and compassion.

The power of moral imagination

Among the most memorable poems in the collection is the title poem, ‘Shades of Red’. Beginning with the simple act of preparing tomato soup, the poem gradually unfolds into a reflection on vegetarianism, ethics and our relationship with other living creatures. The imagery of ripened tomatoes, glowing with colour and life, is contrasted with the addition of animal stock. What makes the poem effective is not that it lectures the reader. Instead, it presents a deeply felt personal response.

The poem demonstrates Vivienne’s gift for allowing moral questions to emerge naturally from everyday experience. The kitchen becomes a place of reflection. Food becomes a lens through which larger questions of life and death are considered. Whether readers agree with the poet’s perspective is almost beside the point. The poem succeeds because it transforms conviction into art.

Time as companion and teacher

Throughout the collection, time appears almost as a character in its own right. Poems such as ‘Always About Time’, ‘Still’, ‘Time’s Gift’ and ‘Those Last Days’ suggest a writer deeply aware of ageing, change and mortality. Yet there is little bitterness here. Instead, there is a growing sense of acceptance. The passage of years is viewed not simply as loss but also as a source of wisdom. Memories are revisited not with nostalgia alone but with curiosity and gratitude.

Animals, companionship and love

The section titled Paw Printed Patterns contains some of the most immediately engaging poems in the collection. Pieces such as ‘Jacob’, ‘Muffin’, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘After You Have Gone’ celebrate the relationships people form with animals. Anyone who has loved a pet will recognise the affection, devotion and grief that animate these poems.

What could easily have become sentimental instead feels genuine because McKechnie pays attention to specific details. These are not generic animals. They are individuals with their own personalities and histories. The poems remind us that companionship comes in many forms and that grief does not measure the species of the one who is lost. There is great tenderness in these pages, but also a quiet understanding of impermanence.

A strong sense of place

Although the collection ranges widely in subject matter, there is an unmistakable sense of place running through it. Limerick appears not merely as a backdrop but as part of the poet’s imaginative landscape. The city and county have long nurtured a vibrant literary culture through organisations, festivals, publishers and writing groups. McKechnie’s work belongs firmly within that tradition. Readers familiar with Limerick will recognise the attentiveness to community, memory and local experience that has characterised much of the city’s literary output over the years.

There is something particularly heartening about seeing a writer who has contributed so much to the cultural life of the region continuing to produce work of this quality. In an era when literary attention often gravitates towards Dublin, collections such as Shades of Red serve as a reminder of the richness of writing being produced in Limerick by Limerick Writers’ Centre, Revival Press and Savoy Editions.

A collection that lingers

The lasting impression left by Shades of Red is one of humanity. These poems are attentive to the overlooked, compassionate towards human frailty and alert to moments of unexpected beauty. They find significance in soup-making, mathematical puzzles, family memories, beloved animals and the slow passing of years.

McKechnie writes with emotional intelligence and technical assurance. She understands that poetry need not be grand to be profound. Often the deepest truths are found in the smallest moments.

This is a collection filled with warmth, insight and quiet wisdom. It confirms Vivienne McKechnie as one of the most thoughtful poetic voices working in Limerick today.

For readers who value poetry that speaks clearly while still carrying emotional depth, Shades of Red offers rich rewards. It is a book to savour slowly, returning to individual poems again and again. Like the many shades, suggested by its title, the collection reveals new colours with each reading. Shades of Red is published by Revival Press and available from limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com