Fiesta Girl by Paul Gallagher

Fiesta Girl by Paul Gallagher Format: Paperback Pages: 140 Publication: August 2026 ISBN: 978-1-9194245-0-7 Paul Gallagher’s work is situated at the crossroads of Symbolism and Expressionism – but not because he has read Symbolist and Expressionist poets (which he has). He writes as he does because his mind works in the way it does. From the very first poem here, ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’, about his then young son, there is a vibrant connection with other people, and there is a soaring lyricism which Gallagher never lost. Gallagher has quietly gone his own way for decades, waiting patiently for the real thing to arrive while honing his craft to be ready for each new arrival. He is that rare thing, a poet both philosophical and lyrical. At times, Gallagher sorts through ‘the drab tinder of our lives’; at other times, the tinder catches fire, and we are given the pure joy of poems like ‘Fiesta Girl’ that commemorate moments and places in which ‘eternity is always at play’. – David Cameron, Introduction It is not the bush burning With imperishable fire That I search for, No, I look for the slender Light of the cherry in spring: Her shape made all the more thrilling By the flaunt and call of her pinks. Paul Gallagher was born in Glasgow in 1956 and has lived much of his adult life in East Kilbride. He worked for British Rail, Greater Glasgow Health Board, and HMRC, as well as being a house husband. He attended Jim Kelman’s writing workshops in Maryhill in the early 1990s. As a mature student at Strathclyde University, and before qualifying as a teacher, he gained a BA Honours Degree in English, won a prize for his poetry, and earned a First for his dissertation on the Scottish poet, WS Graham.