Irish Writer’s Centre Benefit Evenings (October to December 2009)

I am placing herein a link to the Index page of the Irish Writer’s Centre
in Parnell Square who have been running a series of Benefit evenings
to increase core funding as a result of cutting by The Irish Arts Council,
(along with fund cutting to the Western Writer’s Centre). The Cuts
occurred just after the Minister Martin Cullen appointed a New Irish
Art’s Council Board (Linked at base of this piece/Politics.ie).

The Benefits have been running Oct > Dec 2009 and are chaired by
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and John F Deane, I hope to get out to one
or two of them also. The Index page of the IWC is here:

IWC Index of Events for Oct-Dec 2009

WWC/IWC fundcuts. (Cullen’s Adventures with the Scissors)

Lightplay in Irish Landscape: Hyde and O Driscoll.

The Mystery, by Douglas Hyde*

I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the murmur of the billows,
I am the ox of the seven combats,
I am the vulture upon the rocks,
I am the beam of the sun,
I am the fairest of the plants,
I am the wild boar in valour,
I am the salmon in the water,
I am a lake in the plain,
I am a word of science,
I am the point of the lance in battle,
I am the god who created in the head, the fire,
Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain ?
Who announces the ages of the moon?
Who touches the place where couches the sun
(if not I)

* I do not have a book for this one, it’s transcribed from a bilingual
Spanish edition in the keeping of my wonderful friend, I will of course
ask him to send me the details so i can publish it here. it’s a beautiful
poem by Douglas Hyde.

From Skywriting, by Dennis O Driscoll

On midwinter day, sun excavates
the entrances of passage tombs,
surveys their corbelled vaults, revives
their spirits with light touch.
And slabs of weather-beaten stone-
wedged on heathery mountain tops
that offer panoramas of five fertile counties-
carry boulders like the weight
of the world on granite shoulders
receive a warm overspill of light,
as do these giant incisors- a ring of
standing stones- which form a sun trap.

I highly recommend ‘Skywriting’ by the way, it is taken from Reality Check
by Dennis O Driscoll, publ. Anvil 2007, sure I know – was at the launch
in RCSI on the Green.

It’s Culture night 25/09/09!!

I am looking forward to it, though have to do an intricate plan by
mapping the evening. This is to do with my guests who are smaller
than the average person and not used to being up late.

So the evening will involve drop-ins to their and my chosen venues.
And a wee bite to eat along the route.

The main thread on the night is just below this post, that includes
the main link to maps and cities involved in this year’s celebrations.
As I said there , Poetry Ireland will be reviving their wonderful
Open Mic night at the Unitarian Church on St Stephen’s Green.
Other recommendations include Charlie Byrne’s bookshop
evening up in Galway which will be chaired by Michael O Loughlin
and anywhere where poets do gather = look at the maps.
The cities will be lit up with venues open that normally do not
open at night; and as I said before the best way to do it, is by
using the feet and planning well in advance. Taxis are for the
time-constrained.

Galway Culture Night
Politics Ireland Culture Night Thread.

‘Your childhood fable of fountains now’ , FG Lorca.

Fountain in the generalife Palace, Alhambra.

I thought to do a note on some poems by Federico Garcia Lorca,
though the images he conjures seemed to have thwarted that
and instead I found myself ensconsed in a book I found years
ago in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop up in Galway City.

The poetry of Lorca has run like a thread through my visual
and intellectual life since I was nineteen, though it seems an
age ago when I discovered his writing- it really is not that long.
Thus I was unsure whether a poem or two would suffice to
capture this greatness; and indeed had prevented me thus far
from publishing anything by the man. The line at the
top of this post is by Jorge Guillén , Lorca uses it to begin his
Poem Your Childhood in Menton , when he had found
himself transplanted into the Americas as a student; and away
from the very soil that made his songs, be it bleached by
the sun or drenched in blood. Thus I am going to publish here
an excerpt from the poem along with an exhoration to read
Lorca, to listen (if at all possible) to the music of the Deep Song;
and to recommend from amongst the Biographies of FGL that
of Ian Gibson.

Your Childhood in Menton.

love, love, love. The childhood of the ocean.
Your lukewarm soul which is without you and does
not understand you.
Love, love the roe’s flight
over the endless breast of white.
And your childhood, love, and your childhood.
The train and the woman who fills the sky.
Nor air nor leaves nor you nor I.
Yes your childhood fable of fountains now.

The above excerpt is taken from a series of published lectures
by Federico Garcia Lorca, entitled: Deep Song and Other Prose,
Ed and Trans Christopher Maurer. Publ. Marion Boyars 1954.

The Deep Song lectures are collated from a series that the poet gave in Spain and the Americas.
The Poem published above was published in Un poeta en Nueva York.

I believe my bilingual edition is also translated by Christopher Maurer
but have not it to hand at the moment. I heartily recommend chapters , which
are essentially speeches from these lecture series on The Duende and Lullabies
for the new reader to familiarise him/herself with Lorca’s intimate tone
and Poet in New York for a good introduction to some of his later poetry.

Lorca, a Life by Ian Gibson.
Poeta en Nueva York
Deep Song

Lorca Wiki

Open Book Alliance Formed by Yahoo,Amazon and Microsoft.

Hot on the heels of the Google Library project and GBS (Google
Book Settlement), three tech giants have formed the Open
Book Alliance. Good to see that the scanning project, which
to date has scanned/digitised 7,000,000 books,( 5,000,000 of
those were copyright protected) is being challenged.

In the meantime I shall add in the links on the GBS at the end
of this piece, point the reader to the Pages link in the righthand
column and update as info regarding the European Commission
Anti-trust meeting (07/09/09) becomes available.
Open Book Alliance.
GBS Links.
The Ephemera Links