Having completed two poems in the last three weeks, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to work on next. After the intensive work on the Epithalamion it’s a bit disconcerting. I’ve had a quick look at some fragments that I have lying around since the 1980s but none of them are grabbing my attention.

As to reading poetry, I’m currently dipping in and out of various collections and anthologies in an effort to fire the creative juices - to no avail.

I’ll just have to stay with it and trust that something will fire my imagination.

I’m glad to report the arrival of another new poem. The happy event took place this night three weeks ago after a particularly virulent alcohol-fueled rant by me at some politicians on the 9 o’clock news and subsequent liberal doses of reflection on my anger. Having jotted it shakily down in one of my pocket notebooks I stumbled to bed and promptly forgot about it. A few days later I took a peek, decided it might be worth something and wrote it out again in a steadier hand, after which I consigned it to a drawer for another 10 days or so. Having had another look at it last night and made a couple of minor vocabulary changes, I’m convinced of its worth. It’s called “Nice” and is ready to be unleashed upon the world at the first opportunity.

I’ve been so busy since Writers’ week that I haven’t had a chance to post anything at all let alone anything on Writers’ Week 2008. Despite the late hour, I can’t hold back any longer.

I signed up for the Writing a Novel workshop with Carlo Gébler which proved to be a real treat. I found Carlo to be sharp as a needle, concise, precise and funny (in the best sense of the word) and learned an enormous amount in the intense 12 hours we had with him. It was money really well spent. Now it’s up to me to do the (enormous amount of) work necessary to write my novel.

I also got to perform some poetry during the 4 days as follows:

1. At “Poets’ Corner” on Thursday 29 May 2008 in the Kingdom Bar MCd by the inimitable George Rowley, I had the the privilege of performing “Resurrection” to a packed and highly appreciative audience among which were Rosaleen who was in my Writing a Novel workshop, and Michelene all the way from Mayo. We were also treated to the masterly tin whistle of Barney McKenna of The Dubliners, the wonderful Freddy White, and many poets of all shapes and hues.
2. At the “Healing Session” in J.B. Keane’s pub on Sunday 01 June. The pub is now run by Billy Keane, J.B’s son. Billy and I were in the same class in St. Michael’s College, Listowel all through our secondary school days. Billy did me the honour of a short introduction to my performance of “Full Moon over America” which I thoroughly enjoyed as there was no microphone to impede me.
3. I couldn’t miss the Maureen Beasley Memorial poetry event on the Sunday evening in The Mermaids Bar. I knew Maureen who was a very kind person, and who invervened on my behalf the last time I was at Writers’ Week in the mid 1980s when an officious member of the Writers’ Week Committee of the female sex who shall remain nameless (she knows damn well who she is) tried to stop me from performing a couple of poems in Broderick’s Bar (there are little Hitlers everywhere). I performed “Embrace” in Maureen’s memory.

I managed to get to two readings - Pat Boran’s, and John Banville’s which was interesting and controversial. Pat’s reading was very moving so much so I saw several members of the packed audience in tears, and I wasn’t far off myself either. Having never read any of John Banville, I was curious to hear him read. He read from his as yet unfinished forthcoming novel contrary to the advice of his publisher as he said by way of a preface to same. I managed to keep my concentration for the entire reading which lasted about 20 minutes and was struck by the acuity and beauty of the language. There followed the usual question and answer session, which finished with a very stupid question by some Unitedstatesian woman about the importance of setting. Having replied that setting was entirely unimportant (as the story could in effect be set anywhere), John then stated that “travel narrows the mind” to gasps from the audience. Well, they were asking for it!

On a more personal note, the few days proved very significant as acquaintance was renewed with Billy Keane after all of 32 years, and with Pat Boran after around 20 years (we can’t decide exactly when was the last time we met). I spent a couple of hours in the company of John F. Deane, Pat Boran and Noel King while they plied themselves with the black stuff and I with sparkling water (I was driving). I also received news of the death of a friend from my University days - the poet Páric MacGrane whom I hadn’t seen since the early 1980s - which proved to be a shock. I can’t get Páric out of my mind and am trying (vainly for now) to write him a worthy poem.

Listowel Writers’ Week 2008 begins this evening and runs until Sunday evening next. I’ll be going for the first time since the early 1980s as I have signed up for the Writing a Novel workshop to which I am really looking forward. It promises to be a very interesting and intense few days.

Writer and journalist, Nuala O’Faolain, succumbed to her cancer just prior to midnight last night. I remember her from the time she worked for RTE. She was a brilliant and insightful journalist, and an excellent writer - though I have yet to savour her writing. For the past few years we have had a hardback copy of her novel My Dream of You on our bookshelves, thanks to Ana who purchased it. I’ve been meaning to read it but somehow never got round to it, and the book ended up hidden from view on the very top shelf of our living room library. When Nuala announced recently that she had terminal cancer and that she was refusing treatment for it, I made a mental note to start reading the book while she was still alive. Sadly, she has passed on and I still haven’t started it. Now that I have finally got it down from its lofty hiding place, I will read it in memory of her.

I’ve been under severe work pressure recently and have therefore been unable to post, much to my chagrin. I’ve finally done my VAT returns, and ironed out all the bugs in a shopping cart I was building, which will relieve some (but not all) of the pressure. Hopefully I can post a bit more in the coming week.

For those who are interested, Listowel Writers’ Week have posted details of this year’s competitions on their Writers’ Week website. Check it out!

I’ve had very little time for writing in the last couple of weeks, alas! I’m extremely busy at work and I try to relax when I’m not working which means switching off the brain. The result of all this is that I’ve made hardly any progress with either the 2nd pantoum or the candide poem.

This, however, might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as the sub- or un-conscious (depending on how one looks at it) is working away on the poetry in any case. So I expect some interesting stuff to surface over the mid-Winter break.

My subconscious has been working overtime recently, so much so that it woke me up very early this morning - it was still dark - and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Instead the lines from the second pantoum I’m working on started coming to me. I’d made some progress on it recently with a rejig of the beginning but I was not happy with the end of the second line. After a few attempts at finishing it I had it! So I got up and rushed to the kitchen taking out the notebook where I keep it to write down the solution lest it escape again back into the sleep fogged recesses of my brain like a fish in an underground pool. Furthermore the last line of the first stanza which had also been giving trouble, and which I thought I had cracked yesterday afternoon over a coffee in Ennis, also fell into place with the realisation that I had in fact cracked it.
It was 05:55 when I finished so I went back to bed to grab as much of the remaining hour’s sleep as I could.

I’m thinking of my next collection - I have 3 new poems which are the start. There are some older unfinished pieces which are very strong but need finishing. One of them begins “The tide is felt to form the swell” and goes on for 3 verses before coming to an abrupt halt in the 4th. I’ve been working on this in the past few days as the poem won’t leave me alone - the verses keep resounding in my mind. It’s in the form of a pantoum.
The pantoum form fascinates me, as the line repetitions from one quatrain to the subsequent quatrain are recontextualised and can change in meaning. As such it offers a significant technical challenge. I can’t wait to complete my first! Once finished, it will go into the new collection.

As for a title for the collection - I’m torn between “Garden of Intangibles” (which is currently the title of the 2nd unpublished collection) and “The Core”.

I received a rejection slip in the form of an e-mail from Faber in London 3 weeks ago. It’s not the first rejection slip I’ve received. It is, however, the first rejection slip received since I started writing again. It was received on foot of my submitting both of my unpublished collections, namely Experiments on my Field of Vision and Garden of Intangibles.

I was informed that one of Faber’s poetry editors had read both collections but didn’t want to publish them. This editor “prefers the more contemporary [poems], but feels that they need more work.” When he says “more contemporary” I don’t know if he means a) the more recent poems (the poems are dated in both collections and have explanatory footnotes where necessary) or b) the poems that are more contemporary in style and tone.

In any case, Faber has sent me an anthology of the “kind of modern poetry that Faber would publish” entitled Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times (see cover on right), which was decent of them. I’m still sampling this anthology, and will comment on it in due course.