Since I was made redundant due to the Covid 19 pandemic in the second week of March,
one way of dealing with the whole quarantine is meeting up with other poets online
getting involved in open mics and open readings. The medium really suits readings,
as literally hundreds of people can get to see you read /perform in the comfort of
their own home. Cultivating Voices is the brainchild of poets Sandy Yannone and
Elizabeth Ann in the States. This short 15 minute film, sound a bit funny in places,
got 259 hits which as far as I know is my biggest audience. So, this was very much
appreciated. Sandy was even kind enough to invite me back, so who knows, I may
be doing another reading Live for them before the month is out.
As this whole reading session was dedicated to the memory of Eavan Boland, I
decided to open with her wonderful poem War Horse. This is followed by
a poem in French written by me with its accompanying transversion which
seemed to go down very well, judging from the feedback. Its not a common
thing, apparently, multilingual readings. Then I read Destruction one of my
favorite sonnets by Baudelaire which was actually the first one I ever
translated many years ago. I finish up then with some more poems from
The Dark Pool. I wanted to acknowledge some other great poets from
Boland's generation, so I read Atomic Sonnet dedicated to Derek Mahon
and The Night Watch which is dedicated to Thomas Kinsella. I finish up
the reading with the opening poem of the same collection The Drinker
which I wrote in the old Lord Mayor's Bar in The Shelbourne Hotel at
the height of the boom. Happy days!...
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