Boyne Readings & Open Mic, May

Kate Dempsey, Triona Walsh, Barbara Smith (The Poetry Divas)

The Boyne Writers' Group was well represented last night in the Open Mic and thanks to Frank Murphy of The Meath Writers' Circle and Honor Duff of the Cavan/Meath Litlab (sorry I mispronounced your name Honor) for attending and reading. 

The Poetry Divas themselves were fantastic to hear.  Thank you Kate, Triona and Barbara.  You can read more about the night at http://thetarapoetryblog.blogspot.com/

Poetry Divas for Trim

If you are around Trim this Thursday night then be sure to pop into the Knightbridge Retirement Complex Coffee Shop, Longwood Road, for the Boyne Reading and Open Mic.  This weeks featured readers are The Poetry Divas;  Barbara Smith, Kate Dempsey, Triona Walsh and Niamh Bagnell.  Kate Kempsey blogs under the Emerging Writer and has been a featured reader in Trim before.  Since being there last she has won the Plough Prize for a short poem and been published in Poetry Ireland Review.  You can hear her reading the winning poem by following the link below:


http://www.theploughprize.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150:kate-dempsey&catid=68:poets&Itemid=90

Chase Twichell

I first read some of Chase Twichell's poems in The Bloodaxe Staying Alive and/or Being Alive anthologies.   She's an American poet and I really like her voice.   Her poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, Field, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Nation, and The Yale Review.  I love Hunger for Something

Sometimes I long to be in the woodpile,
cut-apart trees soon to be smoke,
or even the smoke itself,

sinewy ghost of ash and air, going
wherever I want to, at least for a while.

Neither inside nor out,
neither lost nor home, no longer
a shape or a name, I’d pass through

all the broken windows of the world.
It’s not a wish for consciousness to end.

It’s not the appetite an army has
for its own emptying heart,
but a hunger to stand now and then

alone on the death-grounds,
where the dogs of the self are feeding.


"the dogs of the self", what a great description.  I found some more of her poems online.



Horse

I’ve never seen a soul detached from its gender,
but I’d like to. I’d like to see my own that way,
free of its female tethers. Maybe it would be like
riding a horse. The rider’s the human one,
but everyone looks at the horse.

To the Reader: If You Asked Me
 
I want you with me, and yet you are the end
of my privacy. Do you see how these rooms
have become public? How we glance to see if--
who? Who did you imagine?
Surely we're not here alone, you and I.


I've been wandering
where the cold tracks of language
collapse into cinders, unburnable trash.
Beyond that, all I can see is the remote cold
of meteors before their avalanches of farewell.


If you asked me what words
a voice like this one says in parting,
I'd say, I'm sweeping an empty factory
toward which I feel neither hostility nor nostalgia.
I'm just a broom, sweeping.

To the Reader: Twilight

Whenever I look
out at the snowy
mountains at this hour
and speak directly
into the ear of the sky,
it's you I'm thinking of.
You're like the spirits
the children invent
to inhabit the stuffed horse
and the doll.
I don't know who hears me.
I don't know who speaks
when the horse speaks.

Poetry Ireland Introduction Series at The Irish Writers' Centre 12/05/11

Michael Farry

It was wonderful to hear Michael Farry reading his poems on Thursday evening just past and I thoroughly enjoyed being in the Irish Writers' Centre for the first time.  I came away from the event feeling inspired.  The general consensus was that the four writers selected by judge Alan Jude Moore were diverse in their voice and the readings manifested this.  Ainin Ni Bhroin read long, almost prose like pieces, Kimberly Campanello echoed confessional poets like Plath and Sexton, Michael brought us on a journey through parts of his life in a captive way and Donna Sorensen left me wanting to read more of her work.  All poets were interesting.  This is how it appeared to me, from afar.

I met Paddy Smith, Evan Costigan, Honor Duff and Kate Dempsey on the night.  Well done to the selected writers.  Four more will read on Wednesday night, same time, 6.30 pm, same place.  They are Eleanor Hooker, Susan Lindsay, Barbara A. Morton, and J.S. Robinson.

Donna Sorensen

Poetry Ireland Introduction Series 2011 - Michael Farry

Poetry Ireland presents the Introductions Series 2011 featuring Ainín Ní Bhroin, Kimberly Campanello, Michael Farry, and Donna Sørensen.


Venue: Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

Time: 6:30pm

http://www.poetryireland.ie/
 

I'm delighted that Michael Farry, a founder member of our writers' group, Boyne Writers, has been selected to participate in this years Introduction Series.  Michael is the editor of Boyne Berries magazine and the secretary of our group. 

 

I'm up very late tonight so it's afforded me the chance to dwell on some of his poems.  I've always liked Grow Up Slowly (For Cian) which can be read in Boyne Berries 3.  Another poem of his that comes to the fore is My Interest in Polish Poetry has been Aroused which was published in The SHOp.  However right now Five am in Perth, Australia from Boyne Berries 2 is poignant.  My sister is living in Perth at the moment.  Michael has a pleasant and strong reading voice. 

 

Five am in Perth, Australia

 

We keep a clock at Perth time here

and as I do my final tidy round

I see it's five am there.  Are you

restless, roused by milk deliveries

and heavy bin collecting trucks

or by the swish of dead leaves

dashed against your window?

 

My mistake, it's spring there now,

dawn chorus, perhaps a discord

of bowerbird, bushlark, thornbill.

Here our sycamore stands stripped,

its rough leaves filthy litter.

 

At verge of sleep I am befuddled.

Are those pert rooks on the roof

or you sleep-walking in the attic?

And you, I hope, confuse the

clamour of your neighbours waking

with my dressing and descent to put

the kettle on, release your terrier.

 

Michael Farry

Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition 2011

The prizes for this are great.  2000 pounds sterling to the winner and a weekend writing retreat, 400 for 2nd and 200 for 3rd prize.  20 other finalists will recieve 25 pounds and all winning poems will be published in Mslexia magazine, October, November and December issues.  So it's well worth taking a shot and entering if you have a spare, really good poem or maybe you have one up your sleeve waiting to be written.  The judge is Jo Shapcott and she says that she would like to read "poems which, as Emily Dickinson famously said, make me feel as if the top of my head is taken off."  Oh yes no problem, I have one in the oven that is quite so. :s

The entry fee is 7 pounds sterling for up to three poems, again not bad at all.  The closing date is 18th July.  Poems can be in any style, of any length and on any subject.  Poems should be doubled spaced on A4 pages.  If entering by post put your name, address and details on a separate piece of paper as the poems are judged anonymously.  You can enter online too.  Follow the instructions carefully at www.mslexia.co.uk/poetrycompetition

or post to:

Women's Poetry Competition

Mslexia Publications Ltd.

PO Box 656,

Freepost NEA5566,

Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1BR.

England

Riposte

I have a poem in May's issue of Riposte called Going to Portmarnock which I wrote about two years ago to enter a competition about railway journeys.  I went to Portmarnock on a date at the time but the best thing by far to arise from the situation was the poem.  I don't know what became of the competition or who won it but I'm happy my poem found its destination at least.  It's a sonnet.  I was writing a lot of sonnets at the time.  They must be nearly all published now so I will have to write some more. 

This time last year Frank Murphy advised me to send something to Riposte and a few weeks ago at the Boyne Berries 9 launch Evan Costigan told me to do the same.  Evan had a poem called Conch in the broadsheet recently and Frank had a poem in it too recently I'm sure.

Thanks very much to Michael O'Flanagan who edits Riposte.  It is in its 16th year and has a very impressive mailing list.  To subscibe to the publication for one year costs 15 euro and you can contact Riposte by email; msriposte@gmail.com or view the website at http://gofree.indigo.ie/~riposte/