Monday 21 December 2015

Friday 18 December 2015

2016 - The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins - Now on sale


Just published by Nuascéalta in time for both the upcoming Irish General Election campaign and the 1916 Rising Centenary commemorations "2016 – The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins" is a timely collection of 16 topical satirical poems plus Kevin’s re-write of the 1916 Proclamation. Everyone is in here: Lucinda Creighton (or Lucy as Kevin calls her), Denis O’Brien, Angela Merkel, Enda Kenny, Michael D. Higgins, Joan Burton (God rest her), Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton…Fox News, Irish Water, her Holiness Cora Sherlock of the Pro-life Campaign, and the monument to high liberal seriousness that is his excellency Sir Fergus Finlay all also get dishonourable mention. If some people had their way, this book would be banned. Be sure and buy as many copies as possible before it is. 

Copies can be purchased here

Launch details soon. 
 

Wednesday 16 December 2015

'Premature Elegy for Hilary Benn' published in The Morning Star

I've written quite a few elegies this year. Most of them for people who, at least technically, aren't dead yet. 

The most recent is my 'Premature Elegy for Hilary Benn' which appeared this day last week in the British daily newspaper The Morning Star.  

This is the seventh poem I've had in The Morning Star since May when the paper's Arts Editor contacted me and asked if they could re-publish my poem 'Blair's Advice'.

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Jailing of Mick Wallace TD

Mick Wallace, the Independent TD for Wexford, has today been jailed for attemping last Summer to inspect a U.S. military aircaft at Shannon airport to see if there were any arms on board. 

Mick Wallace was kind enough to launch my most recent collection of poems at the 2014 Cúirt Festival, having previously published one of my poems, about the abortion issue, on his website

Here is an article I wrote last Summer on the occasion of Mick's arrest, alongside Clare Daly TD who participated in the same action.

What Mick Wallace and Clare Daly did that day stands in the proud political tradition of direct action and civil disobedience. It is the sort of thing people such as James Connolly and Constance  Markievicz would have done, and in their time, did do; it is an action most TDs are far too cowardly to even contemplate, even for a cause they notionally support. 

I re-dedicate this poem to Mick Wallace because I think, in the circumstances, it is appropriate.

It says a lot about our political system that Mick Wallace is in jail tonight for taking part in a protest, while other people are not in jail and, as things stand,not likely to ever end up in jail. Not even for a night.

Monday 7 September 2015

Essay in Berfrois magazine: ‘21 Poems: 21 Reasons For Choosing Jeremy Corbyn’: Why I Put It Together

The U.K. based online magazine Berfrois, who themselves published an E-book of 20 Poems for Corbyn asked me to write for them an essay on why I put together 21 Poems: 21 Reasons for Choosing Jeremy Corbyn. 

A long-time friend and, for his sins, former member of the Yorkshire Regional Executive of the Labour Party came to visit for a few days in early May. He arrived the evening of Wednesday, May 6th, having voted by postal ballot for his local Labour candidate in the UK General Election which of course took place the following day. Our plan was that we would, at the appointed hour – together with my immensely tolerant wife Susan and our altogether less tolerant cat – gather around David Dimbleby, eat and drink to excess, and watch the predicted hung parliament unfold…” read on.
Berfrois's Poems for Corbyn includes poems by Erin Belieu, Ian Birchall, Becky Cherriman, Natalie Chin, Josephine Corcoran, Alec Finlay, Iain Galbraith, Helen Ivory, Andy Jackson, Erik Kennedy, Marion McCready, Nicholas Murray, Pascale Petit, Tom Pickard, Ian Pindar, Michael Rosen, Michael Schmidt, Ernest Schonfield, Nick Telfer and Rory Waterman.

21 Poems: 21 Reasons for Choosing Jeremy Corbyn includes poems by Penelope Shuttle, Merryn Williams, Mike Jenkins, Neil Fulwood, Jo Waterworth, Jacqueline Smith, Colin Dardis, Angela T. Carr, Dave Lordan, Ruth Aylett, Jack Grady, Mark Cassidy, Maurice Devitt, Charles Bane, Jr., Nick Rush, Helen Harrison, John Throne, and Pete Mullineaux. 

Monday 24 August 2015

21 Poems: 21 Reasons for Choosing Jeremy Corbyn LAUNCHED!



poems by Penelope Shuttle, Merryn Williams, 
Jacqueline Smith, Owen Gallagher,
 Neil Fulwood, Mark Cassidy, 
Pete Mullineaux, Helen Harrison, 
John Throne, Angela Carr, 
Charles Bane Jr., Mike Jenkins, 
Jo Waterworth, Colin Dardis, 
Dave Lordan, Ruth Aylett, 
Jack Grady, Maurice Devitt, 
Nick Rush...
 
You can read the poems here.

Friday 14 August 2015

21 Poems 21 Reasons for Choosing Jeremy Corbyn is currently seeking submissions.


21 Poems: 21 Reasons for Choosing Jeremy Corbyn is currently seeking submissions.

The project will appear online during voting in the UK Labour leadership election. 

We are looking for quality poems which are in some way relevant, in the broadest possible sense, to the issues raised by Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign

Poems can have been previously published, either in collections, anthologies, or magazines.

If you are interested, please email your poem, as an attachment, with an accompanying 50 word bio, to me Kevin Higgins at kphiggins@hotmail.com