Have You Been Actively Seeking Work Since You Last Signed?

Joan Burton believes in redistributing wealth from the unproductive economy i.e. the unemployed to the more enterprising elements in our society. Such as the now famous consultants employed by Irish Water. 

My poem 'Have You Been Actively Seeking Work Since Last Signed?' is one man's tribute the heroic work of Joan's Department of Social Protection. The poem was published yesterday on the website of Clare Daly TD for Dublin North.

Outburst's outburst & New Planet Cabaret: Two Roads Diverge

I have a poem in the latest issue of Outburst, alongside George Szirtes, Breda Wall Ryan, Michael O’Loughlin, John Ennis and others. You can read the magazine here.  

Sadly, the editorial in this issue is, well, and I say this with the greatest respect, a load of reactionary garbage. Not reactionary in the witty, amusing Evelyn Waugh/William F. Buckley manner. That would be fine. 

 

William F. Buckley Jnr

I can be a bit of reactionary myself sometimes; earlier this evening the great Marxist theoretician, Jimmy Dignam (late of Joe Higgins’s Dáil Office) called me a “right wing scumbag” on Twitter and he’s probably at least partly right; my poem ‘Use’, for example, which you can read here, could not have been written by someone who wasn’t a bit of a right wing scumbag at least some of the time. 

The editor’s introduction to this issue of Outburst is a cranky and ungenerous attack. He even implies that the true poems are written in "isolated garrets". A piece of nonsense  for which he should, at the very least, be awarded dinner for two with Barney Sheehan. 

One of the points the Outburst editorial tries to make flies in the face of my own very recent experience: “The notion of writing for a so-called ‘public’ is sad, in any case. The number of people who actually read poetry can be numbered in the low hundreds and of those the numbers who try to understand it can be slashed by multiples.” 

Well, to mention just one example, my ‘Pantoum for Limerick National City of Culture’, has, Chris Murray tells me been viewed a couple of thousand times since it was published on her blog earlier this week. 

A while back I found one of the poems from my first book, The Boy With No Face, quoted in an article about Occupy London. The internet has opened up tremendous possibilities for poets capable of writing poems those the Outburst editorial so contemptuously refers to as the "so-called 'public' " might want to read. Not because some poetry world head says they should. But just because. Those are the readers I am most interested in these days. You know. Real people and the like. 

Certainly, there are bad poets who try to use Facebook to push their work. But to use a magazine editorial to make what amounts to a generalised attack on the community of Irish poets, especially the younger social media savvy generation, is a disgrace. As I say, dinner for two with Barney Sheehan would be a fitting punishment. 

Here is the Outburst editorial in full: 

"It is unfortunate that the poetry scene has been tarnished by recent, highly publicized instances of plagiarism, yet the revelations of the despicable practice should not surprise poets. There are too many poetry competitions awarding too much money to the winners. Fame, it seems can come too easily by way of social media. Facebook seems to have created a new phenomenon, the instant poet, whose ‘work’ often seems to have incubated overnight with little attention having been paid to the craft of writing, before it is thrust upon a tired public. 

Of course the Irish poetry world is clique ridden and exclusionist and has been so for too many decades, yet this very Irish trait should inspire, rather than deter poets. Maybe not enough of us are asking, for whom do we write? If the answer is for awards, or fame, or, God help us, for publication in Poetry Ireland, maybe we should be writing jingles for Tayto crisps or Milk Tray chocolate. The notion of writing for a so-called ‘public’ is sad, in any case. The number of people who actually read poetry can be numbered in the low hundreds and of those the numbers who try to understand it can be slashed by multiples. Someone has said if we get three people to read our poems we are doing well, a sobering observation and not one without foundation if we recall some of the gushy references to Seamus Heaney’s work in the aftermath of his death. 

True, driven, poets will continue to write poetry in spite of the distractions that plague the scene. Forged in the fire of rejection and crafted in the isolated garret, it will endure to enthral and enlighten when the instant poem and its unworthy mentors are lessons in how not to promote the arts in Ireland."

Meanwhile, an alternative to such crankiness is outlined by Dave Lordan in his introduction to the recent anthology New Planet Cabaret: “Billy Ramsell has used the term amphibious to describe our post-2.0 generation of creative writers who seem to breathe just as easily between the covers of the book as they do in front of a lively late night audience, who produce work in the multiple formats found on the web, who are not sure and perhaps not all that concerned whether they are poets, performance poets, rappers, stand-ups, filmmakers . . .  who organise and promote gigs and festivals, as well as performing at them, who publish books as well as writing them. What are we a ′tall a ′tall? We are whatever we desire to be at the time, I guess. We are what the occasion demands. Trans-writers is how I like to think of us and a trans-generation that takes pride in usurping outmoded artistic distinctions and labels in the Arts is a generation I’m very happy to  belong in.”  Dave’s full introduction can be read here. 

I know which vision of the future I prefer. Indeed, if I believed the Outburst view of the Irish poetry world was anything like reality I’d lock myself in the wardrobe this minute and start lighting fires, which is perhaps something I should consider doing anyway.

My poetic tribute to Pat Cox's ongoing linguistic genius

 

He is one of those great men that littler men (and indeed women) often try to bring down. Unlike your average gurrier in the street, former leader of Europe Pat Cox knows how to talk in big fancy sentences connected together by lots of semi-colons.

The former President of the European Parliament has been the subject of a certain amount of criticism from fringe elements for his role, as Chairman of the Board, in the great success that has been the first week of Limerick National City of Culture 2014.  

My poetic tribute to Pat Cox's ongoing linguistic genius, 'Pantoum for Limerick National City of Culture 2014', was yesterday published on poet Chris Murray's blog Poethead and also on Irish Left Review. 

There is no truth at all in the rumour being spread by some subversive elements on the internet that, shortly after he heard about this poem, Pat Cox was yesterday cautioned by Gardaí for trying to steal a pair of Pantoum from the lingerie department of the Childers Road branch of Dunnes Stores.

Another former leader of Europe reacts to news of Limerick National City of Culture's glorious first week.

I Have Been Invited To Read My Poems At 'Monster Rally'

I have just received a phone call inviting me to read two of my poems at the Monster Rally that is being organised by Lucinda Creighton at a very large venue, to be announced, later this month.

The two poems I will be reading on the day include one that has been personally requested by Lucinda Creighton herself, which you can read here, and another that has been requested by Shenator Fidelma Healy Eames, which you can read here.

This is a great honour, obviously. Also taking part will be David McWilliams who will be there to appeal to middle aged women of no particular opinions. And - a little something for you rugby types out there - according to today's Sunday Independent Tom McGurk's roasting testicular sac will be driven into the stadium in a Popemobile. 

 

Ice will be provided free of charge to all menopausal men in attendance. 

First Marilyn Monroe, then Princess Diana, now Jimmy Savile

First Marilyn Monroe 

Then Princess Diana 

 Now Jimmy Saville

Limerick City of Culture 2014 - Time To Say Goodbye

As Limerick City of Culture 2014 descends into something approaching total disaster, I think it's clear why:

"FORMER MEP and president of the European Parliament Pat Cox signed off on hiring his former assistant to a top job which was not advertised." (Irish Independent, November 2013) 

Patricia Ryan was an assistant to Cox while he was an MEP and also worked for Cox’s Progressive Democrat colleague Mary Harney while she was in government. She has no specific experience of working within the arts sector.

She was appointed to the job of CEO of Limerick City of Culture. Pat Cox is the Chair of the Board. The job was not advertised.

Ms Ryan’s lack of arts experience showed when she asked that lyrics in a rap song composed for Limerick City of Culture 2014 by two young people from Moyross, Nathan Keane and Calvin McNamara, be changed. See today’s Irish Times. The lyrics remained the same and you can hear them here. The rap song starts about one minute and fifty four seconds in. 

Limerick City of Culture 2014 began on January 1^st i.e. on Wednesday. Then yesterday, January 2^nd, the Artistic Director Karl Wallace (below) and two other people involved in programming the festival all resigned. 

I've always thought Pat Cox a knob of the most extravagant order, with all due respect to knobs everywhere, which can actually be quite useful in certain circumstances, certainly more useful than the appropriately named Mr Cox. Surely now he should be told by the government to resign as Chairman of the Board and his former assistant, Patricia Ryan, should be asked to clear her desk also? It isn’t working. 

Pat Cox, second from right, urging people to say yes to a bunch of stuff 

I'm not a petition signer generally, when it comes to arts related issues. Those who rush to sign them, especially the online variety, tend to be a mix of the most tragic bastards going and people who fantasise that the arts establishment and perhaps also the Jews are conspiring against them.

However, I would certainly put my name to a petition of artists and arts organisers calling on the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, and the Limerick City and County manager, Conn Murray, to tell Patricia Ryan and Pat Cox that, though it's been fun, it is - in the words of Andrew Lloyd Weber - time to say goodbye.

Given Pat Cox's dismissal of the issues raised by the resignations my poem 'Portrait of The Boss Shaking Hands With Himself' is, I think, appropriate. It's from my 2005 collection The Boy With No Face.   

Poetry Workshop Laws

Workshop Laws

Your poems must be devoid

of cacophony, hope,

shards, love and anything

that could be described as

mellifluous. You will wage war on

‘and’. Participles will be rarer

than dry Irish Augusts;

it will almost always be ‘go’,

hardly ever ‘going’. ‘But’

and its best friend ‘then’

will be interrogated

severely at every checkpoint,

only allowed through

if they don’t give

the game away. Excessive

use of the hyphen must be

ruthlessly rooted out. Whatever  

you compare her to, 

let it not be a summer’s day.  However

bad the crisis gets,

never go in search of a word

that rhymes with

bankers. Now

it’s been discovered,

the God particle

is the new tsunami,

and like every daytime

radio commonplace,

no longer acceptable.

Never say: “I’m sad.”

Show us the wallpaper

in the room where

you thought about

ending it. 

Here I am with some of the participants in one of my poetry workshops this year.

One of my students, Nicki Griffin, at the launch of her first collection of poetry in November. For more about Nicki's book see the Salmon Poetry website.

Above is a poem in which I poke a bit of fun at the sort of advice I typically give participants as to how they might (hopefully) make their poems better. I love working with new poets on their poems. If you're interested in trying your hand at a few poems yourself, you might perhaps be interested in joining us for one of the January workshops. Full details below. 

"Starting in January, Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, The Boy With No Face, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in 2008 by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry. His third collection Frightening New Furniture was published in 2010 by Salmon and his work also appears in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). A collection of Kevin’s essays and book reviews, Mentioning The War, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2012. Kevin’s poetry has been translated into Greek, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Japanese & Portuguese. His next collection of poetry, The Ghost in The Lobby, will be published in February 2014, also by Salmon.

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, two have won the Cúirt New Writing Prize, and yet another the Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam, while several have published collections of their poems. Kevin is also co-organiser of the successful Over The Edge reading series which specialises in promoting new writers. 


Each workshop will run for ten weeks, commencing the week of January 20^th. They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class January 21^st); on Thursday afternoons, 2-4pm (first class January 23^rd) and on Friday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class January 24th).


The Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €110, with an €100 concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email info@galwayartscentre.ie"