Northern Ireland is a long way from Bermuda, but for Paul Maddern, poetry helps to bridge the gap.

The Bermudian has recently been achieving success with his poetry. He has had his poetry published in the Poetry Ireland Review, The Shop and most lately, The Caribbean Writer.

Several months ago he also won a Kilfedder Memorial Bursary from the North Down Borough Council Arts Section in Ireland.

Mr. Maddern, 43, has been living in Groomsport, Northern Ireland for six years. After working in the restaurant business for a long time, he decided to go back to university. He is now at Queen?s University in Ireland studying for his Ph.d.

He was born in Bermuda and attended Saltus Grammar School. His first degree was from Queen?s University, Ontario, Canada in film Studies. He worked briefly for ZBM as a camerman and video editor before leaving the island.

?I had been in London for 12 years and I had had enough of incredibly busy city life,? said Mr. Maddern. ?It was great fun for a while. I decided to move to Northern Ireland because my mother is from here.?

Mr. Maddern grew up in Bermuda, and part of his family is still on the island.

?I would love to come back to Bermuda some day,? he said. ?I would love to teach there.?

Mr. Maddern hopes to eventually teach creative writing.

?Creative writing courses are becoming more and more available, but the quality of those will vary a great deal,? he said. ?I am not entirely sure that creative writing is something that can be taught as opposed to nurtured.

?The nurturing process is very important with writing. I don?t think we give writers enough time to experiment and learn in today?s commercial market. You have to be a hit when you hit the ground.?

Mr. Madderns poetry tends to be about both of his homes, Bermuda and Northern Ireland.

?Quite a few of my poems are about Bermuda either directly or indirectly,? said Mr. Maddern. ?There is often either a description of Bermuda or what it means to me, or people in Bermuda who are very influential to me.?

Like a lot of poets and writers, Mr. Maddern finds it easier to write about his country when he is not actually in it.

?There is a poet from Jamaica called Lorna Goodison,? said Mr. Maddern. ?She has said that she finds she writes best about Jamaica when she is not in Jamaica. A certain distance is required from a place to give yourself perspective and time to focus your ideas.?

But Maddern also loves Northern Ireland. He said that although many people in the rest of the world have a negative picture of Northern Ireland, this is not necessarily accurate.

?The picture of Northern Ireland is still one of deep divisions and bombings,? he said. ?That is far from the truth. Compared to ten years ago it is a different country.

?As soon as you are outside Belfast you are in stunning countryside. It is one of the most beautiful countrysides that I have ever lived.?

Mr. Maddern is currently working on getting a collection of his poems published in the mainstream marketplace.

?I have just spent two weeks at a writers centre in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland,? he said. ?That was spent tidying up the manuscript that I can send away to publishers to get a collection published.

?Indirectly, at least fifty to sixty percent of the poems will be about Bermuda, but most of it is about my time in Ireland.?

He said he fell into writing poetry by accident, mostly as a way to get rid of some job related stress.

?I had really written anything before coming here,? said Mr. Maddern. ?I suppose I was looking for something outside of the restaurant business which was driving me nuts. I was managing restaurants in London.

?When I came here I was managing a small restaurant in a place called Hollywood. When I went back to University I stepped down from management to waitering.

?I started preparing to go back to school by doing some open university courses which I found extremely good. I was going to apply for a bachelors degree at Queens but someone suggested I go for the MA which is what I ended up doing.?

Mr. Maddern said he admires Irish poets such as W.B. Yeats, Derek Mahon or Michael Longley.