Tonight sees the launch of Revival 5 at the weekly Whitehouse Poetry event in Limerick. I was hoping to go as I want to show my support, but unfortunately I’m snowed under with work right now.

You should go along if you’re in the vicinity. Judging by the launch of Revival 4 last Autumn which I attended, it’ll make for a very enjoyable night.

The Stinging Fly is calling for new poetry submissions for 2008. Details of how to submit are available on their submissions page. The cut-off point for receipt of submissions for the year is 31st March.

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 haven’t had the time to report back on last Wednesday night’s proceedings at the Whitehouse. So here goes.

The guest poet was Barbara Smith and, in contrast to the usual running order, Barnie Sheehan decided to have the guest poet go on first. I was sitting at the back, and had to really strain to hear Barbara at times due to the very loud talking by a couple of inebriated women in the bar behind, so much so that I missed a fair bit of her reading. I have always suffered from a very poor ability to filter out loud voice noise - I can filter out most other noises from thunderclaps to traffic to jumbo jets, but not human voices. Barbara’s low tone didn’t help either.

In any case, I did get a fair amount of her reading and quite enjoyed it. If I were pushed to sum up my impressions I would say her poetry is firmly rooted in the bustle of day-to-day living and relationships with family members, friends (both animal and human) and the wider world. Her poetry uses everyday language, and the rhythms of everyday speech in all its simplicity and complexity. To that extent it is very different to mine. I didn’t purchase her book because I’m flat broke after Christmas and have to be careful how much I spend or I won’t be able to pay the mortgage at the end of the month.

As for my open mic contribution, I did both The Parting and Full Moon over America as planned. This time I prepared by breathing deeply and consciously while attempting to ground myself for a good while before I went on. This had the desired effect and I was much more composed than before. I also consciously slowed down my delivery, especially for Full Moon over America as it was the first public airing of the poem and I wasn’t quite sure how it would go. I’m still coming to terms with the poem as it so new, and am astonished at its power and simplicity, as were at least some of the audience I think.

I’m off to the Whitehouse Poetry session tonight with Ana. The guest poet is one Barbara Smith whom I’m looking forward to hearing. I plan to do a couple of poems on the open mic also - probably Full Moon over America and The Parting.

I must say that I quite like Debian’s (and therefore, Ubuntu’s and all its variations’) way of upgrading, removing and getting new software using apt. I find it is easier to deal with than Red Hat’s rpm system. But I should qualify this by saying that I’ve only had occasion to use apt once - to choose, locate and download the software I wanted on the new Fluxbuntu install - so there may be hidden snags I have yet to come across.

We got up this morning to a highly unusual white landscape. It had snowed during the night - about 1cm - and covered everything in a carpet of white. Last night must have been the coldest in a long while - it measured -3.5°C on our roof at midnight, and was still below zero this morning. The strong winds make it feel even colder. The children are all excited of course, but it leaves me cold. I had a 10am appointment in Limerick city this morning and have had to cancel. If the bloody weather forecasters (MET Eireann) had done their job and warned us of this last night I would have got up a lot earlier so I could make my appointment. But they never mentioned snow for this part of the country high up or low down. They’re bloody useless.