'Revolution' poems and Poetry Day

"Poetry Day Ireland will take place on Thursday 28 April in 2016. The theme for 2016 is Revolution, whether that be artistic, political, social, or personal. Poetry has always closely reflected social change and transformation. In 2016, we aim to bring that aspect of the written (and spoken) word to the forefront in every school, venue, café, and street corner in Ireland. The theme is more of a springboard than a rigid structure. We [Poetry Ireland] encourage organisers and collaborators to rebel against it, to revolutionize it and make it their own." For more see the Poetry Ireland website. #PoetryDayIrl

An actual revolutionary

Another actual revolutionary

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.

Raving Political Moderates React To Brick Being Thrown

Before raving political moderates everywhere start soiling their drawers at the sight of a solitary brick being thrown in Tallaght yesterday, the entire incident is junior hurling compared to this 

A Brief History of Those Who Made Their Point Politely
and Then Went Home 

On this day of tear-gas in Seoul
and windows broken at Dickins & Jones,
I can’t help wondering why a history
of those, who made their point politely
and then went home, has never been written.

Those who, in the heat of the moment,
never dislodged a policeman’s helmet,
never blocked the traffic or held the country to ransom.
Someone should ask them: “Was it all worth it?”

All those proud men and women, who never
had the National Guard sent in against them;
who left everything exactly as they found it,
without adding as much as a scratch to the paintwork;
who no-one bothered asking: “Are you or have you ever been?”
because we all knew damn well they never ever were. 

Kevin Higgins

From The Boy With No Face (Salmon Poetry, 2005)

Occupy London: Poem quoted

A poem I wrote back in 2001, A Brief History of Those Who Made Their Point Politely And Then Went Home, is quoted in Hilary Aked's web article about Occupy London

“A history of those who made their point politely, and then went home, has never been written, as poet Kevin Higgins put it.”

You can read the full article here http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/hilary-aked/no-deadlines-occupy-london-activists-wont-be-co-opted

The poem is from my 2005 collection The Boy With No Face which can be purchased direct from Salmon Poetry here http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=108&a=108&PHPSESSID=c088b6e792087746a022ba5fd7e2052f