Poetry Ireland Introductions Readings...A Wild Goose (not Chase!)

(Look Who It Is, Carlos' Friend and boot)


(A Sort of Ahoy, Art Cementery)

After a marathon session of 48 hours of work and general out-and-aboutness, I got home last night laden down with shopping, (snap! Barbara (with good news too!)– prelude to finding good news, seems to be the shopping trawl!) and sat myself down to catch up on e-mails and blogs and I find the great news that I have been selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Readings.

A series focusing on emerging poets. The Introductions offer an exciting opportunity for talented, emerging poets to showcase their work at a reading and to work with an established, published poet in a workshop environment. Throughout the process the poets will be advised and directed in their work culminating in a reading to a live audience, which will be recorded and published on the Poetry Ireland website. The readings are usually held in early June.

The timing is actually perfect as the workshop is on the 28th of March (with poet Jim McAuley – don’t actually know his work, must look him up…)and I had been planning a trip to Ireland around this time so am absolutely thrilled that it all seems to be fitting in….touch wood! This also means that I will be able to get to some of the Poetry Now Festival Readings which will be the icing on the cake – a whole week-end in Dublin, catching up with friends and meeting poets and going to a workshop and readings.

This is just the stimulus I need to get my act together for the forthcoming book readings.
On a high – indulged in too much celebratory white wine last night - have a touch of a headache - nothing that a spell out in the fresh air finishing knocking down an old hen-house won't cure ; )– oh and a wild goose has come to nest on our land – he or if a she, appears pretty restless (to be expected maybe) and might be nesting - something further to investigate today...

Secret Love Poems and Odd Things in Odd Places

Read an interview with poet supreme Arlene Ang at Savvy Verse and Wit and enter the draw for a chance to win her chapbook
Secret Love Poems ( a brilliant read)

I've blogged at Wrong Miracle about Odd Things in Odd Places...and a poem that came from such oddness...

The Poetry Book Society - Top Tips for New Poetry Readers from Simon Armitage

(Laden with fruit (Chira Dam Oct. 06))

(Being Vigilant, Chira Dam, Oct. o6)

Read the full Article here

The Poetry Book’s Society - Top Tips from Simon Armitage

I found this Poetry Testing Kit, intriguing and oddly just-right. It says in a nutshell what academics go round in circles saying. The questioning format brings the reader right into the conversation – it is inclusive, it does not beat about the bush. I don’t think it belittles poetry either but it brings it out of the dusty annals of poetry masters and into the laps of the people… and what a final question…’Is it possible to write a good poem, if you’ve never read one?’ What do you think? And the tips, read them and see for yourself...I must admit to liking them, how about you?

An Irreverent Guide for New Poetry Readers

The PBS' Top Tips for Poetry Readers by Simon Armitage

Here's a Poetry Testing Kit. It can't produce a precise result in terms of a poem being good or bad - it's more of a finger-in-the-wind, rule-of-thumb job, that might tell you why you like a poem (or why you don't). Remember, the reading of poetry is not an exact science: it does not require the wearing of protective glasses and need not be carried out under strict laboratory conditions.

The Eye Test - How does it look on the page? Has some thought gone into its shape? Does the form bear some resemblance to the content?

The Magic Eye Test - If you look for long enough into the poem, will it reveal another meaning or picture hidden within it? Will further readings uncover further meanings and new rewards, and so on?

The Hearing Test - How does it sound? Read it out loud - does it work on the ear in some way?

The pH Test - A test for Poetic Handicraft. Does the poem use recognizable poetic techniques, of which there are hundreds? Are the techniques subtle, or do they poke out at the edge?

The IQ Test - Not a test for Intelligence Quotient, although that might come into it, but a double test for Imaginative Quality and Inherent Quotability: does the poem have some sort of dream life you can respond to: does it have lines or phrases that might stick in the memory?

The Test of Time - Would the poem outlive its immediate circumstances? This doesn't mean it has to be 'classic' or 'great' or have some eternal message - it might just be a case of the poem withstanding a second reading. Remember, good poems can create their own contexts, and have poetic value way beyond their apparent shelf-life or sell-by date.

The Test of Nerves - Somebody once said that a poem shouldn't just tell you not to play with matches, it should burn your fingers. In other words, does the poem create a sensation, rather than simply an understanding?

The Lie Detector Test - Poems don't have to tell the truth, but they have to be true to themselves, even if they're telling a lie. Give the poem a thump - does it ring true?

The Spelling Test - Does the poem cast a kind of spell or charm? At the very least does it create a world, even just a small but distinct world, capable of sustaining human life; a world whose atmosphere we can breathe and whose landscape we can inhabit for the duration of the poem?

The Acid Test - This is the final test and the one that really counts. It's like a test for the mystery ingredient that separates a truly great tomato sauce from its rivals. It's the X-factor, although it might be to do with the author's experience of poetry. Is it possible to write a good poem if you've never read one? Somehow I doubt it.

‘Don’t Let Me Cross Over love’s Cheating Line ‘ - Secret-Poet Digs Heels in at Going Public’

(On the Spit (Vietnam,06))

(The Key to Happiness...(Farm, Spring 08))

‘Don’t let me cross-over love’s cheating line…’ is a song that I used to love singing for visitors and friends when I was at that lovely innocent age before self-consciousness sets in…obviously, I wasn’t too aware of the subject matter of the song, must have been the melody that grabbed me or maybe it was one that was plonked in front of me and I was told to have a go at it….anyway, I really was into singing as a kid and had a whole repertoire that I sang for folk on demand. I have memories of having a used light-bulb as a microphone and going about a daily sort of business singing to trees and hay stacks and sitting on the tractor with my dad, singing my heart out while he ploughed the fields…nostalgia – better stop now ; )…

All of these memories have sprung from the fact that before long I’m going to have to go public with my poetry…I mean, ‘me with the poetry’ as opposed to the poetry on its own sweet-ownsome in some magazine or anthology – that type of going public, I’ve been dealing with – the other, where I have to ‘tag along‘with the poetry….well, maybe that’s where the digging of the heels comes into it…

Strictly Writing have a great post about Going Public (Feb. 6th). This is exactly where I find myself at now. Having a book published seemed like a brilliant idea at the time and still does but it is just now that the implications of this are sinking in….don’t get me wrong I am a ‘Get-up’ and a ‘Go-for-it’ type of person and won’t let the side down but I fear the crossing over from private-poet, nay, even secret-poet, to poet with readings lined up is quite a hefty cross-over. For starters, I haven’t written anything in ages, maybe three months or so, every time an idea pops into my head, it is swiftly sent hopping by a new sort of public-poet that is saying stuff like – get the proofs done, get in front of the mirror and get the practising in, get the begging letters out for ‘puffs’ and ‘reviews’, get the book out and read it again and again and again – what were you on about there? will that poem be fitting or not for an airing?, what 5 words would you use to describe your work to get the man/woman on the street to give you a hearing, what were you thinking of there? ...Ad infinitum...

Is this just some type of growing-pang? Have others had ‘cross-over’ experiences and if so, how do you keep your secret-poet part from not wanting to really clobber the public-poet part who keeps harping on about blurbs and stuff? Are the two reconcilable or am I destined to keep with the split and the consequences?...: )

NTHPOSITION Poem

(Bells and Buckets, Dec. 07 Lanzarote)

My poem Sun Over a Tree Line is up in NthPosition today.

NthPosition covers a wide variety of areas – from Poetry
to Politics and all the areas in between – Place, Opinion,
Strangeness, People, Reviews, Fiction, Art Reviews and
Discussion. This all combines to make it a very interesting
read. Their submission details are here

Rat-a-Tat-Tat

I never dreamt I would ever have a post heading with the word ‘rat’ in it, even if it is safely cushioned by 'tat'. But yesterday there was an encounter. We’ve been working like warriors on our little farm that has become a jungle and which is now still a jungle but only from the ankles downwards as opposed to the neck upwards (weeds).

We spent the morning planning the whole renovation of the place – it is a cave-house with two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and enormous dining room and bathroom but in a total state of disrepair – tumbling walls, roofs and general mayhem. But it has loads of land and trees and vines – I now sure know where the title of that great book ‘Driving Over Lemons’ came from – only for us, it is ‘slipping’ and ‘rolling’ over lemons and being hit on the head by enormous lemons that cannot take being hung on a branch any longer. Have to learn to bake lemon pie, maybe.

The plans for the house are coming on really well – a sunken bath will be a ‘must’, down with concrete - up with glass and wood, a dining table, a little shed for my laptop and me, a hammock between two fig trees…our minds got so carried away that we did not notice Páidi and Dick (our dogs) going beserk trying to paw their way up a pole to get at a baby rat that was at the top of the pole, bent over itself and hanging on for dear life. I held the dogs back while Vladi got a sweeping brush to shoo the rat onto terra firma – the jump the rat made through the air was incredible, he seemed to land safely and then did a spin-around turn and legged it into the weeds... – it was a pity I was holding the dogs back or otherwise I would have really tried to photograph the whole scene. I did get the above photos of baby rat clutching the pole in fear. I mean, my heart did go out to the rat, can't believe I wanted it rescued as opposed to 'the other.' I remember when we were at primary school, each year there was always a 'mouse episode' in the comhrá gaeilige (Irish conversation) class - a mouse in the classroom and all the children squealing and on tables while the master saves the day or a mouse in 'teach (house in gaelic) Nuala agus Colm' and the mamaí on the chair and the dadaí getting shot of the mouse with the broom. The bravery of man versus vermin. Changed times, heh? ; )

Now, where was I …oh yes, a hammock between two fig trees – all very well and good…now the task is to convince some bank manager to lend us some money...

A Favourite Poetry Read...

(The Jasmine's in bloom with intoxicating smell... )

Rattle is a print magazine but its editor
Tim Green also puts up a new poem a day on Rattle's Blog. The poems are always of a very high quality...the recent favourites I've read have been:

The Man with the Corpse on His Shoulders by James Cushing

Advice Given to Me Before My Wedding by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Definitely worth exploring.

And talking of such - readings and exploring - I have got a few readings lined up in Ireland for Sept. The details are at The Wrong Miracle