tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70382466639870112942024-03-16T18:52:07.923+00:00Ciaran O'DriscollCiaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-25830388353578098662024-01-20T10:01:00.001+00:002024-01-20T12:09:14.447+00:00AREN'T POETS GAS ALTOGETHER!<p> <span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px;">THE SNIB</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A fellow poet once conversed with me</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">about opening a door, telling me</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">how to open a certain door</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">after I had given a reading</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival.</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He went to great lengths to tell me</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">about the catch in the snib,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">an Irish Oxford poet who ought</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to know the art of conversation</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">but I think he overdid it.</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I suppose it was his way</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of being helpful: not wanting</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to be<i> poetically</i> helpful in terms</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of my career advancement,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">he told me about the catch in the snib</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the door I was about to go through,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the door of my exit from the lounge</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the Long Valley in Winthrop Street</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">towards the closest toilet in the pub.</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At least he was expecting me to return</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and not wishing me to be on my way</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">because I was merely on my way</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to the bathroom. But boy did he go</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to great lengths explaining the catch in the snib!</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He <i>could</i> have explained to me the catch</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in the snib of getting an Oxford reading</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">or the catch in the snib of a reading tour</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in the Ivy League Colleges but instead</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">he explained the catch in the snib</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the door on the way to the Jakes</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from the Long Valley Lounge in Cork,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and he was a Cork Poet himself</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">who lectured in Oxford and could </p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">have invited me to give a reading </p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in Oxford University but instead</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">he told me about the catch in the snib</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the door on the way to a WC.</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps it was meant as a metaphor</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">for my excluded state,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">an exhortation to wise up.</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And indeed, reflecting afterwards </p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">on the intensity of his admonishments</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">concerning the importance of knowing</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">about the catch in the snib </p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the door that led to the Long Valley Gents,</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wondered was it a coded message</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">somewhat along the following lines:</p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>You need to find a bogus mode of discourse</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>That deflects things. Tell it slant.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The slanter the better. Whatever you say</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Say nothing. Well of course you have</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>to say something, but don’t be a dipstick.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The snib on the door of Oxford University</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>is particularly difficult. Always was.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Begin with the snib on the door that leads to the Jakes</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i> from the Lounge of the Long Valley Pub</i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>and work your way up from there.</i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">COPYRIGHT © CIARAN O'DRISCOLL 2024</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div><i><br /></i></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-87685468395229755812023-08-25T13:24:00.003+01:002023-08-26T18:34:24.278+01:00POEM REMEMBERING A COLLAPSED LUNG<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px;">MY POST-OP CASE</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For days I carried about</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A case containing a whirlpool</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I exercised my battered frame</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Walking up and down</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The cardiac recovery ward.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Inspectors came at evening</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To observe the swirling liquid.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Well, is it slowing down or not?</i></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I asked when one of them</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Had stared for far too long</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At my body’s agitated humours.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But they found it hard to call,</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like watchers for the shape</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of Proteus in the waves</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That tumbled on Grecian shores.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;">© CIARAN O'DRISCOLL 2023</p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-74683379168185209212023-05-16T14:20:00.023+01:002023-05-17T12:02:24.501+01:00KNUTE SKINNER POET AND HUMANE SPIRIT, RIP<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">QUEUING</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">(i.m. Knute Skinner)</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Oh yes, there is queuing beyond the grave</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">And sometimes it spills over to this side.</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Take the example of Knute Skinner, poet,</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Whose voice was stolen by a stroke and who</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">For two years queued in silence, not quite gone</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Beyond the world but inching onwards. Once </p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">I published a piece of his about a driver</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Stalled in the top spot of a traffic queue,</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">But yesterday his family, friends and neighbours,</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Assembling in a tumbled Clare graveyard,</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Saluted him for getting the green light.</p><p style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJYCufXRiVsGG9ZljEfIvITo82NfyJXoesY0ZdTfBlxViVj850xqQYxAKjtdHT5xT5agdF1oWvkEOmnehY3-Y2oZ7aTCdV0KDKq_VGbZ8C0IrhSACH7Wls8RyoFb_zXL1VUmv5kQU0mdGPtUF16ijH1DZf6qeaBJ2ZQsoXkFmYcfSXHk_dXBmrvxHg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJYCufXRiVsGG9ZljEfIvITo82NfyJXoesY0ZdTfBlxViVj850xqQYxAKjtdHT5xT5agdF1oWvkEOmnehY3-Y2oZ7aTCdV0KDKq_VGbZ8C0IrhSACH7Wls8RyoFb_zXL1VUmv5kQU0mdGPtUF16ijH1DZf6qeaBJ2ZQsoXkFmYcfSXHk_dXBmrvxHg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">O'Brien's Tower, Cliffs of Moher</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Poem © Ciaran O'Driscoll 2023</span></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-85428728102344423672022-11-09T10:13:00.072+00:002022-11-30T11:21:37.825+00:00MY SOUTHWORD POETRY PODCAST<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw7NvN9sqLWT9c3UDkLRN78ej_93FLORbsAItbTspBpV9b2n-k04lC6M57bZXndFHDDuXv2iPPRsXH_YSnznA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p><div>ABOVE IS A SOUNDBITE OF MY SOUTHWORD POETRY PODCAST, IN WHICH I DISCUSS MY POETRY AND READ SIX POEMS FROM MY MOST RECENT COLLECTION, <i>ANGEL HOUR</i>, PUBLISHED BY SURVISION BOOKS 2021.</div><div><br /></div><div>CONTRARY TO THE PERCEPTION IN SOME QUARTERS THAT I AM SOME KIND OF RECLUSE, I AM AVAILABLE FOR READINGS, DISCUSSIONS OF POETRY, INTERVIEWS ETC, BOTH IN IRELAND AND GLOBALLY. I HOPE THAT BY LISTENING TO MY SOUTHWORD POETRY PODCAST YOU WILL FIND ME BOTH FORTHCOMING AND OF INTEREST.</div><div>THE PODCAST IS AVAILABLE ON MOST SITES, APPLE, SPOTIFY, BUZZSPROUT ETC ETC.</div><div>GOOGLING ."SOUTHWORD POETRY PODCASTS" SHOULD GET YOU IN.</div><div><br /></div><div>YOU MAY CONTACT ME BELOW AT "COMMENT" OR THROUGH MY MEMBERSHIP OF AOSDÁNA, VIA THE IRISH ARTS COUNCIL/ AN CHOMHAIRLE EALAÍON, TELEPHONE +353 1 618 0200, OR EMAIL AOSDANA@ARTSCOUNCIL.IE</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-68773671608514483022022-09-21T09:33:00.006+01:002022-11-09T10:59:20.377+00:00A BOOK COVER BY DAVID LILBURN (RIP)<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Below is the cover of my poetry collection <i>The Old Women of Magione </i>(1997) designed by the late David Lilburn. I am currently writing an essay for an Arts Council Blog (related to their 70th Birthday Celebrations) on my various collaborations with this brilliant artist, untimely gone from us.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoJ53tMZb1QoWb4oOGHM6rIWfRuEfPsR9NWAgfE9dJu47n-TUSym0278Q8Gwo4SMcvRtfUySBgmnA6_EJ9Ie2sd2Hl2leLtoLfGJETN_Y1aiyv3LCJUY4n7Fe-_JFdqHsNR9FyUuc5xyUr6QFDNTJgsxnnJRaAB0jtnf_pWCSpNTP99bpyrUquJ2z/s2978/Old%20Women%20of%20Magione%20Grey%20background%20crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2978" data-original-width="2304" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoJ53tMZb1QoWb4oOGHM6rIWfRuEfPsR9NWAgfE9dJu47n-TUSym0278Q8Gwo4SMcvRtfUySBgmnA6_EJ9Ie2sd2Hl2leLtoLfGJETN_Y1aiyv3LCJUY4n7Fe-_JFdqHsNR9FyUuc5xyUr6QFDNTJgsxnnJRaAB0jtnf_pWCSpNTP99bpyrUquJ2z/w496-h640/Old%20Women%20of%20Magione%20Grey%20background%20crop.jpg" width="496" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-61347116734740896102022-08-17T10:50:00.000+01:002022-08-17T10:50:05.004+01:00A POEM FOR MY GRANDSON, OSCAR, NOW 16 MONTHS OLD<p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">GRANDSON</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">(for Oscar)</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I sit on the sofa beside</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">My one-year-old grandson</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Watching midsummer showers</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Speckle the window pane</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">His warm hand in mine</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think of Kavanagh’s poem</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">‘Every old man I see’</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">And know I’m one of them</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I show my face on the mobile</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">To the offspring of my son</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">And then show him his own.</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">He slips my hand and is gone</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Taking me through the rigours</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">of a mad merry-go-round</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">He’s a yacht out on the bay</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m a hulk that’s run aground</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the foc’s’le of the spirit</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">on the wreckage of my hope </span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">still boasts a live transmitter</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">towards which my fingers grope</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">And from perdition’s shell</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Till the channel disconnects</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ll sing him songs of culture</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">and its enlightened texts.</span></span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Copyright Ciaran O'Driscoll 2022 </span></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-23892997954676857952022-04-19T17:10:00.014+01:002022-05-18T10:32:07.597+01:00LENDING HANDS IN LISBON<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">LENDING HANDS IN LISBON</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">"The duty of a writer is to remind us that we will die.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>And </i>that we aren't dead yet." Solmaz Sharif</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I fell with my chair outside <i>A Brasileira</i>,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">slumped to flagstones as it tipped a ledge</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">beside the coffee shop frequented by</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Fernando Pessoa. A woman near me</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">was sipping a clear drink I thought was schnapps</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">until she told me later it was port.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As for Pessoa, he sat there impassive</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">under his trilby, taking nothing in.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But others reached out to lever me from </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">my prone position: half-a-dozen hands</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">descended towards me in slow motion, faces</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">full of solicitude looked down on me. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A voice called <i>Gently, gently, lift him gently.</i> </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Out of nowhere, a doctor declared himself, </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">inspected the wrist which bore my tumble’s brunt,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">said I was fine and recommended ice.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I felt well enough to finish my brioche</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">despite some pain and discombobulation,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">but I thought it churlish of Pessoa</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">to sit there dandily indifferent,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">a simulacrum, while a fellow poet</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">plummeted on a ledge-forsaking chair</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">to possible perdition from the platform</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I visited in portly pilgrimage.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 24px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It was mid-morning. Not having touched a drop,</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">even of clear port, I was clear-headed</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">enough to catch Pessoa’s quiet response</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">to my hasty umbrage at his disregard:</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Beaten in bronze and far beyond the year</i></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>of grace I was given to ghost through Lisbon, </i></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>I, too, would have liked to lend you a hand.</i></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>My dilemma was, and remains, that I am dead.</i></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2022</span></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-88903998998882286352021-10-29T14:40:00.080+01:002021-10-29T15:23:23.028+01:00REVIEWING THE REVIEWS<p><span style="font-size: large;">Martina Evans reviewed four poets in last Saturday's <i>Irish Times Magazine.</i></span> </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">She begins with Tipperary native Eleanor Hooker's <i>Of Ochre and Ash</i>, quoting from </span><span style="font-size: large;">"When you dream of the dead"</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Dad's by the hearth, encouraging ash back to life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I've never lived in a house that held its heat I tell him,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">unable to say I miss you in case he recollects</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">his death. Somewhere in the house</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">a child is crying. Find her, he says.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There's an awful lot in those six lines. The enigmas of ordinary Irish rural speech, its mind-challenging indirectness; what's not said; a flavour of Isabel Allende's novel <i>The House of the Spirits</i>; pathos; a simplicity which is not the same thing as directness (Martina Evans speaks of Hooker's 'deceptively plain writing.')</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There's one guy and three gals. The guy is Raymond Antrobus and his collection is called <i>All the Names Given.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My mother said my father had a heartless sense of humour.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">That winter she fell, ice on the road...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He watched from the kerb – boozy red-eyed Dad –</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">laughed when she said he had a heartless sense of humour,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I think that's how he handled pain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">("Heartless Humour Blues")</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This is not as full as Hooker's lines, but I like the repetition of the heartless sense of humour, and the swift character sketch of Dad, with the pinprick epiphany of the last line.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In <i>The Sun Is Open, </i>Gail McConnell grieves for the loss of her father, shot in front of his wife and children, a sectarian execution of 1984:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">night and day he made and trees</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">and peas and wendy houses</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">tricycles sunglasses that go snap</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">let there be lights let lights appear</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, Parwana Faraz in "Forty Names", the title poem of her book, "tells the story of 40 young women shot in a cave. We know their names but not why they died, grief is expressed in their naming and the cinematic vision of that mountain place, their dresses animated, a herd of colours".</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Faraz speaks of her mother who, on being exiled, 'carried her box of sewing needles and her butterfly sewing machine made in the USSR'. She advised her daughter to be 'a woman with an idea and a wallet."</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2021</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-61768478207413098602021-10-12T21:27:00.002+01:002021-10-12T21:31:30.971+01:00THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE RUBBER BANDITS (2) MORE ABOUT THE HORSE OUTSIDE<span style="font-size: large;">The 'Horse Outside' presents a traditional, animal mode
of transport in the midst of flashy mechanical modes of transport
which have become status symbols in a pathologically status-conscious
society. When the sexy young woman mentions the alternative modes of transport
available to her from rival suitors, the Spar-bag-masked yokel dismisses them
all in favour of his equine means of conveyance: 'F**k your Mitsubishi, I've a
horse outside...' This admirer of female allure comes into a highly artificial
and class-conscious society like a blast from the past, like a healthy force of
nature, full of primordial, unselfconscious confidence. He doesn't give a damn
about the claims to a woman's heart represented by ownership of flashy cars; he
believes (as I think we all do deep down) that a horse is a far superior being
to a mechanically propelled vehicle. This cocky wooer is making a claim for a
true gradation of status: the superiority of a living being over a piece of
metal. Not only that, but the image of a horse 'outside' is a powerful one. The
horse which is outside the door of the church is also outside our society,
outside the wedding feast, outside the pale. It conjures up in my mind the
Ancient Mariner, the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth, An Inspector Calls, The
Green Knight, Death the Leveller, the Eumenides, the Reckoning. I don't think it
is too over the top to say that the Rubberbandits' horse outside also conjures
up death and judgement. In one of their sketches, a claim is made that the only
things that ghosts are frightened of are horses. There is also the echo between
'horse' and 'hearse': 'I have a hearse outside'. The church is a scene of
funerals as well as of weddings. First Love, Last Rites is the title of a book
by Ian McEwan. Not only does our society shut out the horse, it also blanks out
on death. In the old days, it was a horse that drew the hearse to the final
resting place. This is still so in the case of travellers, who are like the
horse in that they are also 'outside'. Class distinction, sex, death and
disparity are, of course, the life-blood of comedy. </span><div><br /></div><div>© Ciaran O’Driscoll, 2014,
2021.
</div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-34673487819308769462021-10-12T17:17:00.025+01:002021-10-18T15:15:37.469+01:00THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE RUBBER BANDITS: (1) THE HORSE OUTSIDE<span style="font-size: large;">Limerick is well-known for its horses. They can be seen all over the place
harnessed to sulkies, with a single driver holding the reins and leaning almost
horizontally across the skeletal, one-seated frame. Horses can be seen grazing
in fields within and on the edges of the city boundaries, piebald and roan and
patchy and thrown-down looking. The Rubberbandits, a comedy hip-hop duo from
Limerick, have taken the horse to their hearts. Is this because the horse might
be 'a metaphor for a community centre' as one of them asks in a prank call to a
psychotherapist? But as the psychotherapist says, humans are very complicated
and it's hard to know exactly why the caller constantly dreams of horses as a
result of a dog 'having sex with his head'. If his head was made pregnant by a
dog, the caller wants to know, why is he dreaming of a horse, shouldn't he be
dreaming of a puppy? 'Horse Outside', a single released by the Rubberbandits in
late 2010, had phenomenal success and led to the duo's being catapulted into
fame. The phrase reverberated in the English language as spoken in Ireland. It
was even alluded to in an article about an architect in the Arts Section of The
Irish Times. On You Tube its fame went viral and global. I remember how much all
three of us loved it in my home. It struck some truly resonant chord for us. As
it did for hundreds of thousands of others. I want to suggest why this might be
so in the following few paragraphs.
A HORSE A HORSE MY KINGOM FOR A HORSE GIVE US THE LOAN OF A HORSE SHAM SOUND MAN
To be continued.
© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2015 and 2021</span>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-72645235800524582972021-09-16T21:22:00.061+01:002021-09-28T09:54:15.489+01:00<div>ANGEL HOUR by CIARAN O'DRISCOLL</div><div><br /></div><p><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://survisionbooks.royalwebhosting.net/bookshop.htm&source=gmail&ust=1632903400634000&usg=AFQjCNHaMe4rFxrl9rYAUq8-eRQFYMETpQ" href="http://survisionbooks.royalwebhosting.net/bookshop.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" target="_blank">http://survisionbooks.<wbr></wbr>royalwebhosting.net/bookshop.<wbr></wbr>htm</a></p><p>Click on the above link to access the SurVision Bookshop directly, or cut and paste the link on to your browser.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwApazUkhr8/YUX-SrEIufI/AAAAAAAAArs/KOy5R68jDDUseCPkqvOecCuIvjgYSVdFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/zzzzzzzfrontcoverdraft.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1444" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwApazUkhr8/YUX-SrEIufI/AAAAAAAAArs/KOy5R68jDDUseCPkqvOecCuIvjgYSVdFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/zzzzzzzfrontcoverdraft.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br /><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">CONTENTS</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">1. ELEMENTS</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A Single Sound </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Wrong Kind of Dog</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A Zen of Wasps</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Sometimes Rain Comes Like This</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Olm</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Kiss</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Islets</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">2. ANGEL HOUR</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The See-Through Poet</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">My Builder’s Opinion of Light</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Fairies</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">On the Anniversary of a Disappearance</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Close Call</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Heart in the Wall</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Man Who Went to Emmaus </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Angel Hour</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">3. HARD LINES</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Strange Behaviour of Light</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Budapest Quartet</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Rip </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Copper Mines of Peru</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Poems That Mean Something Else</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Concerning the Silence in These Parts</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Breath</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Nothing Happened </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">4. HALFWAY HEAVENWARDS</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Old Possum’s Stray</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Frost on a Snowy Evening</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Stony Grey Owl</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A Fly</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Johann Joachim Quantz’s Other Lesson</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Dead Recital</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Teaching ‘The Schoolmaster’</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Catch</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Uncreative Pages</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">5. INTERIOR MAN</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">6. JOURNEYS</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Man in Field Talking to Cows</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Once Upon October</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Flight Hazard</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The Threshold of Quiet</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">For Voyagers</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Tunnels</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">7. PSYCHE</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Man with a Mission </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Therapy </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">My Terracotta Buddha</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A Displacement</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Sublime Subliminality</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Head</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Psyche</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Sonnet for My Wife at 08.15</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Gloss</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I acknowledge with thanks two Arts Council Travel and Training Awards to take part in a Golden Boat Workshop Translation Project in Skocjan and Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2011, and in the Izrekanja Poetry Festival, Celje, Slovenia, in 2019.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Thanks also to the Ireland Literature Exchange for a Translators’ Bursary towards the translation of a selection of my poems, <i>Nadzorovanje Zviljenja </i>(<i>Life Monitor)</i>, into Slovene in 2012; to the translators, Iztok Osojnik and Veronika Dintinjana, and the publishers, Kud France Preseren.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Thanks to Fernando Trilli and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin of Immagini d’Irlanda in Umbria, and to the Commune di Magione, Umbria, for invitations to take part in the Riflessi DiVersi Festival of Poetry in 2013, 2015 and 2017, to Iztok Osojnik for two inspirational occasions when I attended his Golden Boat Workshop. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span>
</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-12894201924467281762021-08-07T13:12:00.005+01:002021-08-07T15:34:47.575+01:00SNEAK PREVIEW OF SEVENTH COLLECTION 'ANGEL HOUR'<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3tEJ93gd83Q/YQ506cY0IwI/AAAAAAAAAqk/xbPtzIz2z94t-VJEhxh-Pdm66kW0b7-qgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/zzzzzzzfrontcoverdraft.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1444" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3tEJ93gd83Q/YQ506cY0IwI/AAAAAAAAAqk/xbPtzIz2z94t-VJEhxh-Pdm66kW0b7-qgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/zzzzzzzfrontcoverdraft.jpg" width="226" /></a><br /></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the proposed cover of my seventh collection, to be published by SurVision Books this year. If you'd like to hear a few of the poems in this gathering of the work of twelve years, I'll be reading during the LitBalm Livestream Extravaganza tomorrow night at 10pm. The Zoom Link is</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://us04web.zoom.us/j/461603228" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(17, 85, 204); color: #021eaa;"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://us04web.zoom.us/j/461603228</span></span></a></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: large;">It's also on Facebook Livestream. Enjoy if you can make it! There will be several other poets </span><span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: large;">worth listening to, including Marc Vincenz (Chair), Andrew Joron, Charles Bernstein and Carrie Etter.</span></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 14px;"></span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> </blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-38396864860999613752021-07-25T23:59:00.001+01:002021-07-26T08:27:53.347+01:00POETRY READING AT GRANGE STONE CIRCLE, COUNTY LIMERICK<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Standing within the Grange Stone Circle which is more grandiosely titled 'The Eternal Circle of the Sun' at twelve noon yesterday, Saturday 24th July 2021, eight poets read three poems each (give or take) while the Surrealist Kevin Bateman, the organizer of the reading, recorded them for YouTube. The happening was one of a series of events conceived by Bateman – 'Events in Spiritual Places That People Have Forgotten To Visit'.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The actual event was not advertised to the public, but the recording is now available on YouTube at the following link:</span></p><p><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/0ctP9vbkgzM&source=gmail&ust=1627339341978000&usg=AFQjCNHj8J0Fzn-IEnDSuyT8YBkg4-lZkg" href="https://youtu.be/0ctP9vbkgzM" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Helvetica; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0ctP9vbkgzM</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The reading, in July sunshine with a pleasant cooling breeze, had to contend a couple of times with the noise of passing tractors, as this stone circle is right beside the road from Limerick to Kilmallock. But it was, for me as a participant, a very unique and treasured experience, as I think it may also have been for my fellow readers. </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">I hope the browsers of this blog will be likewise impressed by its presentation on YouTube.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Each reader was presented with a hag stone before they left, as an amulet against witchcraft.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p><p><br /></p><div class="gE iv gt" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; cursor: auto; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; padding: 20px 0px 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"><table cellpadding="0" class="cf gJ" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-collapse: collapse; display: block; font-size: 0.875rem; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin-top: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="display: block;"><tr class="acZ" style="display: flex; height: auto;"><td class="gF gK" style="display: block; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; max-height: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap; width: 479.389px;"><table cellpadding="0" class="cf ix" style="border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; width: 479.389px;"><tbody><tr><td class="c2" style="display: flex; margin: 0px;"><h3 class="iw" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: auto; color: #5f6368; font-size: 0.75rem; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px; line-height: 20px; margin: inherit; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><br /></h3></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr class="acZ xD" style="display: flex; height: auto;"><td colspan="3" style="margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" class="cf adz" style="border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; white-space: nowrap; width: 731.477px;"><tbody><tr><td class="ady" style="align-items: center; display: flex; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><div aria-haspopup="true" aria-label="Show details" class="ajy" data-tooltip="Show details" id=":ou" role="button" style="align-items: center; border: none; display: inline-flex; justify-content: center; margin-left: 4px; outline: none; position: relative; vertical-align: top; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div id=":og" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"><div class="qQVYZb"></div><div class="utdU2e"></div><div class="lQs8Hd" jsaction="SN3rtf:rcuQ6b" jscontroller="i3Ohde"></div><div class="btm"></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"><div class="aHl" style="margin-left: -38px;"></div><div id=":ot" tabindex="-1"></div><div class="ii gt" id=":oi" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="a3s aiL" id=":oh" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; overflow: hidden;"><div dir="auto"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p></div></div></div></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-86052141240475569262021-06-11T11:42:00.000+01:002021-06-11T11:42:19.060+01:00SPOTTED ON SPOTLIGHT<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ycaymNRofLQ/YMM9XniuREI/AAAAAAAAApg/fabV71ueMbMLwn6KhbQH5-iqklY2ioctwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3460%2B%25281%2529.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ycaymNRofLQ/YMM9XniuREI/AAAAAAAAApg/fabV71ueMbMLwn6KhbQH5-iqklY2ioctwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_3460%2B%25281%2529.gif" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">FEATURE BY KIERAN BEVILLE, LIMERICK LEADER 12/06/2021</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 17px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When I was a teenager I spent several months on a farm near the village of Kilmoganny Co. Kilkenny, situated just five miles from the nearest town, Callan. During that time I became aware of some interesting things about Callan. First, Thomas Kilroy, playwright and novelist, was born and schooled there. Second, it was the birthplace of the Roman Catholic missionary and pedagogue, Edmund Ignatius Rice (1762-1844) who established two religious orders – the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers. Third, the writer John Locke (1847-1889), poet, novelist and Fenian activist, also hailed from Callan. An early school textbook contained a poem by Locke called ‘The Exile’s Return’ and part of the first stanza is as follows:</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">O, Ireland! Isn’t grand you look</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Like a bride in her rich adorning!</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">With all the pent-up love of my heart</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I bid you the top of the morning!</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Perhaps that is where the phrase ‘top of the morning’ comes from? When former US President Ronald Reagan visited Ireland in 1984, he quoted the first verse to shouts of acclamation and rousing applause.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Fourth, the architect James Hoban (1755-1831) designed and built the home of American presidents, the White House, in Washington, D.C. which is a matter of great pride, tarnished by the fact that he was a slave owner! At least three slaves were employed as carpenters in the construction of the White House. Their names are recorded as ‘Ben’, ‘Daniel’ and ‘Peter’ and appear in a James Hoban slave ‘payroll’.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What has this to do with Ciarán O’Driscoll? I know that Ciarán would want to distance himself from injustice and this is evident in his writing. You have probably guessed by now that he too was born (1943) in Callan. However, he is one of Limerick’s adopted sons! He has lived in Limerick since 1986 and he is a member of Aosdána, the Irish association of artists created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Among other writings, O’Driscoll has published nine books of poetry, a memoir and a novel. His books of poetry include Gog and Magog (1987), Moving On, Still There (2001), and Surreal Man (2006). His work has been translated into many languages. Vecchie Donne di Magione (The Old Women of Magione) was published in 2006 and a Selected Poems in Slovene translation in 2013. Ciarán’s work has also featured in special Irish issues of important European literary journals such as die horen and La Traductiere. Liverpool University Press published his childhood memoir, A Runner Among Falling Leaves (2001). His novel, A Year’s Midnight, was published by Pighog Press (2012). His awards include the James Joyce Prize and the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry. His poem ‘Please Hold’ (featured in Forward’s anthology ‘Poems of the Decade’) has become a set text for A Level English Literature.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The Speaking Trees</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">More recently, Ciaran published a poetry chapbook, The Speaking Trees, with SurVision Books (2018), and a selection of his work was also included in Seeds of Gravity: An Anthology of Contemporary Surrealist Poetry from Ireland, Edited by Anatoly Kudryavitsky (SurVision Books, 2020). In his Introduction to this anthology, Kudryavitsky wrote: “O’Driscoll, whose work has been popular among the Irish readers of poetry ever since the 1980s, is the link between the two surrealist groupings of Irish poets. He admired Brian Coffey and Denis Devlin, and he took up where they left off, eventually developing his own unique style. According to the critic Michael S. Begnal, reviewing O’Driscoll’s The Speaking Trees, ‘His poems often conjure dream-like or visionary states... His language is clear and deliberate but describes a bizarre or surreal subject matter.’</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Ciarán says “My head is full of poem-quotes as I had a phenomenal verbal memory in my youth. Lines from poems still come into my head with a sense of enchantment.” But his interest is not strictly limited to poetry. He likes traditional Irish music, opera, and watching rugby, “Especially the Munster team” says Ciarán. The Romantic poet, William Wordsworth wrote, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” O’Driscoll says, “It is this kind of retrospective view that is often the thing that sets me writing.” </span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 17px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Life Monitor</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">One superb collection of Ciarán’s poems is Life Monitor (2009). The poems range from reflections on the poet’s progress through life to expressions of filial feeling, to energetic tirades against injustice and bureaucratic absurdity, to quieter moments of natural and social observation. Humour is never far away in these pages, but it would be a mistake to miss the deeper intent. </span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Life Monitor is an expanded version of O’Driscoll’s well-known chapbook Surreal Man, bringing together the much-published ‘Magritte’, ‘The Lost Jockey’, ‘A Gift for the President’ and other surrealist pieces with a generous addition of newer poems broadening the scope of the book. In the poem which gives the book its name, the poet visits his thirteen-year-old son’s bedroom at night to check his breathing, and realises that this is a habit which has persisted since the boy’s infancy. </span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Poetry is also a kind of monitor – of the poet himself and the world to which he belongs; a screen on which lines appear that indicate the extent of good or ill. This collection assembles the work of a decade, in which O’Driscoll has continued to monitor life as presented in its various epiphanies of well-being or malaise. The subjects range from the poet’s own maturing state, to the obsequious bestowal of a bowl of shamrock on ‘a bellicose American president’, to a message of comfort from speaking trees; the moods from a wry regret at domesticity’s woes, a grieving for estrangement, a tirade against robotic voices on the phone and celebrations of love.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Eamonn Grennan in his review of Life Monitor in The Irish Times (26 June, 2010) said that it is “the work of a poet in confident possession and exercise of his craft. [His] poems do what good poems should do, widening and deepening the world for the rest of us.” A review by Val Nolan in Southbound online literary journal, 2009 states, “O’Driscoll captures… moments of idyllic beauty, those we are inclined to overlook in hectic days of finances and tailbacks. ‘We have troubles, say the trees, but we don’t worry’.”</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">A Runner Among Falling Leaves</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Critics have been effusive in their praise of O’Driscoll’s memoir, A Runner Among Falling Leaves. Gerald Dawe in The Irish Times said “O’Driscoll’s book is an important document: well written, brisk…it makes cool, frank and poetic observations of the intersection between personal desire and cultural possibility. At a time when we risk losing the run of ourselves in the forever ‘new’ Ireland of today, this brave, honest book should not be missed.”</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Pearse Hutchinson wrote in the The RTE Guide “Ciaran O'Driscoll is a poet of the first order. This book makes it clear that he is also a consummate writer of prose. This memoir reveals much suffering as well as unusual integrity, with humour and youth in it in spite of everything, and a hard-won resolution at the end. It is an extraordinary feat. Read it.” Darragh McManus wrote of the memoir in The Irish Examiner, “A wonderfully evocative exploration of personal childhood traumas and their adult resonance…a rarity in the field.”</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.2px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Thomas Kilroy, playwright and author of The Big Chapel, also wrote in praise of Ciarán’s memoir, “I grew up in the town of this memoir. It all comes back to me through O’Driscoll’s poetic eye, the back row of Egan’s cinema, the stink and sweat of Fair Days, the schoolboy jingles, the girls swimming in the King’s River. But at the heart of the book is a deeply affecting, traumatic relationship between father and son. Here the writing is terrifying and like no other memoir I have read.”</span></p></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-23499816259688249802021-05-18T14:29:00.020+01:002021-05-24T10:54:02.521+01:00MY TERRIBLE TEMPER<p><span style="font-size: medium;">My mother used say to me, 'Oh Ciaran, you have a terrible temper'. At other times she would say, 'And did you bottle it all up?' referring to my childhood anger against my childhood bullies, a topic I have dealt with in my memoir <i>A Runner Among Falling Leaves</i>. 'Passive aggressive' is how some other people have labelled me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps because I have (potentially) 'a terrible temper', but 'have bottled it all up', I am seen as 'passive aggressive'. I don't know: my wife's mother used to say 'Ciaran is a very quiet man'. I remember when I was seven hearing my aunt discussing a photo of me with a friend of hers and saying 'he looks sad', and the friend using the words 'highly strung', which I didn't understand.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Watching a match on television I generally tend to favour the underdog, unless the Munster Rugby team or the Kilkenny Hurling team are playing. Favouring the underdog in a thriller of a match between two 'neutral' teams would possibly involve me changing sides, for example in order to support the losing side, or the side which I perceive the ref is not treating fairly, or to go against the one I perceive to be more arrogant or fouling more.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I still take Christianity seriously, and tend to favour the meek over the ambitious. I can get quite apoplectic about people who display an unearned sense of entitlement, or whose sense of entitlement is aggressively pursued without regard for the effect it has on others. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">During lockdown, we have watched a lot more TV than usual, and I find many Television ads distasteful because they are manic, maniacally competitive and encourage children to imitate them. That sanctimoniously fanatic ad for GAA games, the one which begins with the statement 'We are born. The sides are level' is a case in point. Other ads seem to be encouraging people to prepare for life in an approaching time when civilization has broken down. While there are many excellent, artistically talented and genuinely comic ads, I also feel that there are too many aggressive, disturbing and unfunny ones on today's goggle box.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">All of this is a preamble for a new poem of mine, "Entitlement", which will feature in my forthcoming collection, <i>Angel Hour</i>, to be published later this year. This is a 'sneak preview' of 'Entitlement', because I feel that, as readers of my blog, you are entitled to it :–)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(11, 11, 11); color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(11, 11, 11); color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">ENTITLEMENT</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve begun to notice recently that things</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">don’t stay in their places the way they used,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">a cup falls to the floor, an office moves,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">trees disappear, glaciers flow like rivers,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">and I wonder has it anything to do</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">with the new feeling of entitlement?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t mean to cavil with human rights,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">the attitude I speak of is different:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">one person’s entitlement, as sure as sin,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">will diminish the entitlements of others. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And why are these self-told entitled ones</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">unable to calm down and take it easy</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">like normal human beings? I start to doubt<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">if there’s a normal human being left</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">at all, marvel how scarce a champion</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">of the ordinary has become, regret</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">there are so many can’t be satisfied<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">with a bite and sup, a roof, someone to love,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">a seaside holiday, a book to read.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Death and taxes on it! Disappointment<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">is too tepid a word for what I feel</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">watching the striving battling contending</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">the jostling and the fighting till I want<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">to shout For God’s sake will you all <i>relax</i>?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You’re creating too much anxiety!</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">If you want freedom, lose the rivalry,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">compete against competition itself.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Sit! </i>as you’d tell a dog, sit for a long time,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">try to imagine what it’s like to be</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">a lone bush in the middle of a field</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">encompassed by the murmur of the rain.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And after that, who knows? Maybe you'll twig</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(15, 15, 15); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">what life's about. (It's not entitlement.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2021</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(11, 11, 11); color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(11, 11, 11); color: #0b0b0b; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-80792805017670404402021-05-04T15:29:00.052+01:002021-05-07T11:17:48.171+01:00MY PANDEMIC POEM<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I think one of the things that helped me during this Pandemic is the fact that I once spent ten years in a religious order. Another is that my wife and I share a sense of humour that verges on the graveyard type. It has also helped that, although I left a religious order, I haven't left my belief in God and the afterlife: matters are all going to be sorted, but not necessarily down here.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Having enough money to live on is a great help, as is having a healthy appetite and an ability to cook something appetizing, and thereby to look forward to dinner time. What else is there? Watching rugby on TV, although the home channels have by now shamefully abandoned the Heineken Cup and the Pro-14 to commercial channels. All I can watch live are the Six Nations fixtures. Hence during this Pandemic I have watched old recordings of outstanding games over and over, and depend on highlights for Heineken Cup and Pro-14.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The news at five-thirty is a must, bringing the latest Pandemic facts and figures. Together, on week evenings, we have been watching crime dramas. On weekends we play music together and drink a few glasses of wine. We have a couple of friends whom we Zoom and my siblings to phone. Our son, living in London, and his partner, have given us a grandson, whom we hope to see in the flesh post-lockdown. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have made strides in learning new tunes on my concertina. I have miraculously survived visits to the local grocers and the off-licence, and am now fully vaccinated. The last holiday we had was a 'staycation' in Donegal in July 2020, which was pleasant. Having had more time to write means that half of the extra time was spent avoiding writing, but I hope to publish a new collection of poems this year.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many many people have written Pandemic poems. I, too, have written one. Even though I cannot begin to comprehend the horror that other people have suffered from Covid 19, I think there's at least a surreal line or two in this poem which point toward it. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(10, 0, 10); color: #0a000a; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">THE </span><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-kerning: none;">RIP</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There’s a rip in my green trousers</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">just above the knee,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a rent in the scheme of things</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">on the edge of my patella.</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don’t know how it got there</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and can’t be arsed to mend it</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">or go searching for a seamstress</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">because when I am asked <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to recite or be a mentor,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">viewers on Zoom can’t see</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">my body’s lower segment</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and within my five kilometers<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">other walkers keep their distance,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">too far to spot the tear,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">because it’s the Pandemic.</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And the TV took it on</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to report the daily numbers</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">of the stricken and the slain</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and told us wash out hands</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">or we'd become statistics</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">but many didn't wash</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">because it seemed too simple</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">a cure-all for such pestilence.</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some were plague-deniers,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">others held raucous shindigs</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and there were those unfortunates</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">who once only, before</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">they brushed an eyelid's itch,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">forgot to swab their fingers</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">although it's the Pandemic.</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And even when I go<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">for groceries to the Aldi</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">not a soul remarks the snag</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">on the edge of my patella</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and it’s not because they’re blind</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">to rips or rents in garments,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">it’s because they’ve got the jitters</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and the one and only detail</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">they look at is my mask</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">which is now a part of me,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">it’s become my lower face.</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So I’m not at all put out</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">by the rip in my green trousers,</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’m glad of any trousers<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">because it’s the Pandemic.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p>© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2021</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kvn_4Db3kcE/YJFaRQ6nX1I/AAAAAAAAApE/muAamhtpX8E-yENK2dgLkSBpYVOAZVpVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3410.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kvn_4Db3kcE/YJFaRQ6nX1I/AAAAAAAAApE/muAamhtpX8E-yENK2dgLkSBpYVOAZVpVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_3410.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-64155597261473745162021-01-30T17:24:00.001+00:002021-01-30T17:24:37.393+00:00PASTA SAUCE RECIPE<p> Here is a recipe which I improvised today for a quick pasta sauce which I found particularly tasty:</p><p><u>Ingredients</u></p><p>Cold-pressed olive oil</p><p>Half a small onion, finely chopped.</p><p>Tiny amount of leftover juice from a ribsteak braised with onions</p><p>Roma Passata</p><p>Half an Avocado, mashed</p><p>Chicken stock cube dissolved in hot water</p><p>Red chilli pepper deseeded and chopped</p><p>Saute the chopped onion in the olive oil and add the leftover ribsteak juice</p><p>Add a shake of Roma Passata and the mashed Avocado. Fold together.</p><p>Add the chopped chilli pepper</p><p>Pour in enough chicken stock liquid and stir to thin sauce to required consistency.</p><p>Add salt to taste.</p><p>Heat and serve over cooked tagliatelle, with or without grated parmesan.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Saute the chopped onions</p><p> </p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-28854847885706881722021-01-20T11:19:00.002+00:002021-01-20T12:44:51.118+00:00DEATH OF MARK WHELAN, POET<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dcsw344X3Q8/YAgGX48GpJI/AAAAAAAAAm8/QwVQ0hC2o0ocdzKPFUuLNGuGtROuZBxIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3287.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dcsw344X3Q8/YAgGX48GpJI/AAAAAAAAAm8/QwVQ0hC2o0ocdzKPFUuLNGuGtROuZBxIgCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/IMG_3287.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>Mark Whelan died in Limerick University Hospital yesterday. The most recent poem of his I have read was in <i>The Hong Kong Review</i>, Volume II, No 2, edited by another Limerick man, John Liddy. Presciently, it was called 'My Death', and in it Mark writes:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span>There is a song to be sung</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span> to break the windows of light</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span>and to have nothing more</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span>to do with time</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I published the poem above, called 'Prelude', when I was guest-editor of <i>Cyphers </i>No 37. It is a poem which shows some influence of Beckett, to whose work Mark was devoted, but it also shows his very striking originality as a poet, and this originality is also revealed in the lines quoted from 'My Death'. A poem which Mark frequently recited to Limerick audiences, whether off the cuff in taverns such as Tom Collins' of Cecil Street and Flannery's of Catherine Street, or in more formal readings, is called 'A Shine Easy' and it ends:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> A shine easy light</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> making the day reincanate</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">like a star</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">fallen into water</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There's a lot more to be written about Mark, but let this suffice for the moment from a fellow practitioner and admirer of his unique poetic talent, following on the shock of his untimely death. <i>Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.</i> (This latter wish is fairly certain to be fulfilled, I'd say.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Rwoqkrw2UU/YAgjyhngy1I/AAAAAAAAAnI/_7hi-RwkMwQ_ZMOiofadbi31Ytw0GfyWACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="334" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Rwoqkrw2UU/YAgjyhngy1I/AAAAAAAAAnI/_7hi-RwkMwQ_ZMOiofadbi31Ytw0GfyWACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div> Mark Whelan (right) with Paul Sweeney 2019<br /> </span></div><br /><p></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-14931183068693155962020-12-08T17:19:00.006+00:002020-12-10T17:00:38.933+00:00ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF A DISAPPEARANCE, FOR TREVOR DEELY.<p><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: medium;">DISAPPEARED</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">(on the 20th Anniversary, 08/12/20)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">There’s a map and a line on a map</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">that moves from one identified place</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">in Dublin to another, past premises</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">still standing as they stood that night </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">among the city's transformations.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">A line which comes to an end</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">at his last confirmed sighting.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">There’s a clear-cut journey traced</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">to the last CCTV footage</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">where he is seen in wind and rain,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">bent under an umbrella, passing</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">an ATM on Haddington Road,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">a man in black not far behind him.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And beyond that, mystery,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">and all that it entails.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><i>O day and night but this...</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">The journey on the map</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">has a clear and verified progress,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">the kind which many follow</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">after an office Christmas party –</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">moving on to a night club</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">and walking home in the small hours,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">calling to collect an umbrella </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">at his workplace on the way.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">A time recorded to the millisecond<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">by a phone's answering machine</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">on which he left a message</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">spoken in good spirits.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And then the cruel hiatus</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">of twenty years, a young man</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">who should be in his forties now<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">an uncle to grown children,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">but is nothing more than the point</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">where a line stops on a map</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">some distance from his home,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">no voice or sight or touch</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">and nothing making sense.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">A trail that vanishes before</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">reaching the frontier of meaning,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">a sinkhole in the city’s heart.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">O Hades, may Persephone</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">soften your heart to those</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">who loved this youth and who</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">have parented for far too long</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">the night’s unkindest mystery.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll, 2020</span></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-80404484665525452582020-11-12T13:44:00.000+00:002020-11-12T13:44:51.028+00:00A 'FOUND POEM' ABOUT A CITY BUS TOUR<p> </p><p><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">CITY BUS TOUR</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Our city is a tort, with the cherry</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">in the middle. And this is Schwartzenberg</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">on his horse after the battle of Leipzig,</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">and you can see he was victorious.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And here is a street that was built to bring</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">beer to the poorer kind, not to disturb<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">the elegant people in the centre circle.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">There was no food in the old coffee houses –</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">they didn’t want to have the smell of onions.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And this is the Town Hall – in German called</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">the Rathaus, with the Christmas Tree in front,</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">which is not ready yet. A different window</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">is opened every day to bring the gifts.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And here is the Ministry of War, now called</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">the Ministry of Defence, but in those days</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">they called it what it was. The city has</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">four railway stations, but for fifty years</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">it had no trains that travelled to the East.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And there you see the Church of St Charles,</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">patron of Black Death and various plagues.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Here is the Natural History Museum,</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">it is ranked among the first ten of the world.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Everything is in it, like pockets of boys.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">This is the New River. The Old River</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">is now a lake. The artists used to live</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">over there, but they had much scandal,</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">and so they were not given galleries.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">And this is Metternich, who told Franz Joseph</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">‘You don’t discuss with the people, you thump them.’</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Later, we go to Concert Hall for Strauss.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">Watching the shops is also interesting</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">but in the fog you can’t do anything.</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2020</span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(66, 66, 66); color: #424242; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2038" data-original-width="2048" height="199" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iaihhal9kxk/X605Z1AclSI/AAAAAAAAAl8/6BnRtLhCaEMOUutgBWjAVd-dgQAqL2w3QCLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h199/image.png" width="200" /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-75286836351814268022020-09-23T11:12:00.017+01:002020-09-23T16:07:17.163+01:00ITALIAN POETRY FESTIVAL RIFLESSI DIVERSI POSTPONED UNTIL 2021<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The long-running Umbrian poetry festival, Riflessi DiVersi, which occurs around the end of September, has had to be postponed this year until 2021 on account of the Coronavirus. That is to say, the intended participants for 2020 will be the participants, hopefully, in the 2021 edition of Riflessi DiVersi.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> In the meantime, a website has been created, "Irlanda in Umbria", which features the work of the postponed poets, as well as the musicians, together with items from past incarnations of the festival. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Click on the link <u>below the picture</u> to view the website</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d_q1dCTetW4/X2tjw37GM0I/AAAAAAAAAlI/jfHW_RBundsaorXShaDYc4_L42m59vHBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_2846.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d_q1dCTetW4/X2tjw37GM0I/AAAAAAAAAlI/jfHW_RBundsaorXShaDYc4_L42m59vHBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_2846.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p></blockquote></blockquote><p>L to R: Aurelio Stoppini, Vera Lucia di Oliveira, Ciaran O'Driscoll, Margarita....., Rita Castigli, Andreina Panico; Riflessi DiVersi 2015.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><u><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-size: medium;">http://</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://irlandainumbria.ie&source=gmail&ust=1600950514703000&usg=AFQjCNENIuPj9o9Sy9vvRAr1lDb16riEIQ" href="http://irlandainumbria.ie/" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">irlandainumbria.ie</a>/</span></u></p></blockquote><p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-31346966080680290842020-08-14T16:26:00.000+01:002020-08-14T16:26:51.562+01:00SPLEENWORT PLANTS AND LICHEN ON THE OLD WALL<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xPDYJJ2Gurw/XzaPuC_i-NI/AAAAAAAAAj4/XUO4__U5DkcahuJdtCf90br3QsaQehfxACLcBGAsYHQ/s2016/IMG_3029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xPDYJJ2Gurw/XzaPuC_i-NI/AAAAAAAAAj4/XUO4__U5DkcahuJdtCf90br3QsaQehfxACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_3029.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;">A fresh growth of Spleenwort spotted on the ancient wall between our garden and the school grounds of Scoil Máthair Dé, Limerick.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;">Do you like lichen? Or does it rouse your spleen?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;">The Spleenwort plant reminds me of winter because its fronds remain green throughout the year and I first noticed them in winter.</span></p><div class="adn ads" data-legacy-message-id="173ed3abb864d36b" data-message-id="#msg-f:1675008845914887019" style="background-color: white; border-left: none; color: #222222; display: flex; padding: 0px;"><div class="gs" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; width: 864px;"><div class=""><div class="ii gt" id=":nv" style="direction: ltr; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="a3s aXjCH " id=":nu" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.5; overflow: hidden;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">NOVEMBER DAYS<br /><br />Parsley pales. The cat craps in the flower box.<br />Round the garden table, garden chairs still range,<br />an icebound working group on climate change.<br />The car door’s frozen doorhandle unlocks<br /><br />when blessed by water. Christmas rules TV.<br />Although no visitor’s appeared in weeks,<br />the feeble latch-grip slips, the front gate creaks<br />its winter wolf-crying expectancy.<br /><br />Our neighbour takes his DIY indoors,<br />no longer deafens us with power tools.<br />Spleenwort fronds survive on old stone walls,<br />each finger-lobe a blister-strip of spores.</span></div><div class="a3s aXjCH " id=":nu" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.5; overflow: hidden;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="a3s aXjCH " id=":nu" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.5; overflow: hidden;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2020<br /></span><div class="yj6qo"></div><div class="adL"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="hi" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom-left-radius: 1px; border-bottom-right-radius: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></div></div></div><div class="ajx" style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="gA gt acV" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top: none; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><div class="gB xu" style="border-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="ip iq" style="border-top: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px;"></div></div></div><table style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-size: 14px;"></td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 14px;"></td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 14px;"><table style="width: 100%px;"><tbody></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-59050398746864056692020-07-01T11:38:00.001+01:002020-07-01T14:13:45.138+01:00SURVISION MAGAZINE #7<br /><div><font size="5">SurVision Magazine #7 is now online for your reading pleasure.</font></div><div><font size="5">Edited by the redoubtable Anatoly Kudryavitsky, this midsummer issue has a remarkable translation of a poem by Giorgio de Chirico, the painter/writer and Surrealist Precursor. The poem is 'Speranza' and the translation is by Anatoly himself.</font></div><div><font size="5">There is a generous sprinkling of Irish poets among the International gathering of original poems and translations. SurVision Magazine #7 may be accessed at <u>survisionmagazine.com</u> 'current issue'.</font></div><div><font size="5">Oh, I forgot to say, I have three poems in it myself. How self-effacing of me!</font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6vBi5AadEaU/XvyL6q7wcGI/AAAAAAAAAiw/xAK9GM2z-6k30rNBkeoROC4NJ_cuAxxmQCK4BGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_1698.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6vBi5AadEaU/XvyL6q7wcGI/AAAAAAAAAiw/xAK9GM2z-6k30rNBkeoROC4NJ_cuAxxmQCK4BGAsYHg/s320/IMG_1698.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-48842375055000095402020-06-25T11:53:00.035+01:002020-06-27T14:40:06.946+01:00 ON THE SPANISH STEPS, ROME (January 2013)<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><font face="georgia">A MAN THE WORLD PASSED BY</font></span></p></blockquote><font face="georgia"><div><font face="georgia"><br /></font></div><br /></font><span style="font-family: georgia;">He was sitting in the middle of the Spanish Steps</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">bent slightly forward, looking straight ahead.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Staring in the face of the Void, letting the world know.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the ninth of the nine circles of Nothingness,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">making a silent statement. In the rain.</span><br /><font face="georgia"><br /></font><span style="font-family: georgia;">Grey-haired, grey-bearded, perhaps in his early fifties.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">The hood of his jacket not pulled over his head.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Rain splattering gently on the Spanish Steps</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">and on his hair. Two members of the Polizia Roma</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">a little higher up the stairway, watching him.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><font face="georgia"><br /></font><span style="font-family: georgia;">Like one of those performers who mimic statues</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">(except for his lack of make-up), suddenly</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">he comes to life: an arm reaches out,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">two fingers raised in bored impatience</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">towards a young love-lingering couple nearby.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><br /><font face="georgia"><br /></font><span style="font-family: georgia;">In response to the gesture, which might be read</span><div><font face="georgia">as disrespectful or begging a cigarette<br /></font><span style="font-family: georgia;">or disrespectfully begging a cigarette,</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">the young man, reading kindly, offers one.</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">The spent poseur fishes a lighter from his pocket.</span><br /><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2020 </div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><font face="georgia"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></font></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></font></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></font></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></font></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></font></p></div>Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7038246663987011294.post-68379430702266528742020-06-22T11:54:00.002+01:002020-06-22T15:05:41.189+01:00 A DROP OF WELCOME RAIN<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">SOMETIMES RAIN COMES LIKE THIS</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes rain comes like this</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">a gentle shower that’s hard to beat</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">for calling things to order</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">It calls my heart to order</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I listen and am moved</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">No argument more powerful</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">it calms me to compliance</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">more willingly than downpours,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">comes unannounced and soothing</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">The riddle of its falling<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">makes mystery easier <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I see what should have been</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">a stand-out all along</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">It touches everything and so</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m touched by everything</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">An all-embracing murmur</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">an omnipresence tapping</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">on my inmost being’s door</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">it throws a veil of comfort</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">over the garden and the trees</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">darkens the sandstone paths</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">postponing work and weeding</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">and without a word being said</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">calls amnesty and rest</span></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Baskerville; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes rain comes like this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">© Ciaran O'Driscoll 2020</span></div>
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Ciaran O'Driscollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672548651593392106noreply@blogger.com1