Non-Stop Poetry

What a week it was! Thursday was Irish Poetry Night at The George, and in spite of the unfortunate absence of Karen Hoy, it was still a splendid evening, with excellent, impassioned readings of Tom Paulin (by Matt), Brendan Kennelly (by Alan), Vona Groarke (by me), Tom French (by Tim), and Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, and Medbh McGuckian (by Claire). We had a good turnout that increased over the evening, and The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies provided lively music at the interval and afterward. Thanks to everyone who came out for it.

Friday night was the Bath Spa Poetry Slam--students v. lecturers, and of course the students won. Sam and Emerson of Ambidextrous organised the event well, and it proceeded beautifully. A fun evening.

On the 30th I read at the Salisbury Arts Centre, and after that, she says with a sigh, a long and deserved rest!

Current Issues

Yesterday's issue of TLS carries my review of Vona Groarke's Juniper Street, and I have poems in the new issues of Stand ("The Sty," "The Separation") and Magma ("Old House, New Home").

The Separation

The diaphragm flattens and holds.
My sister, twenty-seven, offers a medal of St. Christopher.
My friend loses another earring between her floorboards.

The tongue tucks behind the teeth.
My niece, four, asks when I’ll come down from the sky.
My friend and I imagine future anthropologists, interpreting the hoard.

The feet perceive the extra miles.
My mother, fifty-eight, voices true and untrue platitudes, one and the same.
My ring knows the way to the foundation.

The hair swings because it can.
My nephew, six, says the world will go on long after he’s dead.
Someone will find the diamond and see in its clarity the colour of loss.

AND THE SENATE!

Pinch me!

WE WON THE HOUSE! WE WON THE HOUSE!

April 28, 1940

WGLT recorded my reading of this poem by Michael Donaghy for their programme, Poetry Radio, and the programme with my reading is temporarily available online if you'd like to hear it: just click here.

Bath Chronicle

A short article on my workshop at King Edward's School in early October.

Irish Poetry Night on 16 November

Come to The George on Thursday, 16 November to hear Irish poetry read by its admirers. Matt Bryden, Claire Crowther, Karen Hoy, Tim Liardet, Alan Summers, and I will read from the work of Eavan Boland, Tom French, Brendan Kennelly, Louis MacNiece, Medbh McGuckian, Tom Paulin, and other Irish poets; traditional Irish music will be played before, during, and possibly after. The George is at 67 Woolley Street, Bradford on Avon, and the reading will begin at 8 p.m.

Come one, come all!