For Reading Out Loud...

(Black Sheep)

(Not a Runner)


(Not a Runner Either)

I am no longer a virgin in the poetry-reading arena....I DID it and lived to tell the tale!
The Poetry Ireland Introductions Readings took place in The Writers Centre in Parnell Square in Dublin. The day was glorious and sunny, I ambled up from Listowel courtesy of Bus Êireann and was able to doze by the window with intermittent staring out of said-window to admire the green, green grass and very bouncy white lambs and baskets of hanging flowers. I got to Dublin at about 3 pm, the reading was to begin at 6.30 pm. I was meeting my brother who lives in Taiwan and had been in Donegal for the week and who would be returning to Taiwan the following day. He was treating us to a night in a hotel with all the trimmings. I had the hotel address and off I went to seek it out and could not believe my eyes when I saw that the hotel was now part of a live music venue - 'Break For The Border', a place where I hung out quite a lot in the 90s ....it was strange checking-in, mid-afternoon, to a place where it was difficult to check-out of in the wee small hours way back then....

It was luxury, indeed. I treated myself to the second shower of the day and a cup of home brew tea from the bedroom tea-maker. My brother arrived and we swapped stories and then suddenly it was time to go...I did find myself saying to my brother that I wondered how I got myself into these situations where I put myself on the line and partake in wobbly-knee feelings beforehand.

We decided to take a taxi to the venue even though it would only have been a 10 minute walk. The taxi drove in a slow convoy-like manner and the talk was amusing ....I had even managed to put the reading completely out of my head and in doing so kept a cool, cool head.

We got to The Writers Centre and I remember thinking - if you are going to run, the time is now, if not, go in there and do the best job you can ...luckily, I opted for not running away.

The place in itself is just magnificent - it is a beautiful Georgian building and the reading room was just full of atmosphere...early evening sunshine and a table laid out with wine and shiny glasses. I met two of the other poets and friends that I had not seen in a long time were there - that so made my day and I found myself really relaxing, surprisingly enough - at this stage I must admit to having partaken in a good few sprays of Bach's rescue remedy and it has to be said that Bach does what it says on the bottle: `relieves and comforts` - just the ticket, not exactly to the moon, but to a sort of nice easy-feeling place called whatever-you-need-it-to-be-called-at-the-time...

(To Be Continued... ; ))