Festival under the Clock 2011

Great line-up for this year’s “Festival Under The Clock” on April 2nd in Rathmines. Performances in Rathmines College kick off at 1.30pm with Cora Venus Lunny. Also in the afternoon are Liam O’Maonlaí, Latvian Choir "eLVē" and Cuckoo Savant.The evening entertainment includes John Spillane, comedian Jarlath Regan and the Toby Reiser Quartet.

On top of this there will be an opportunity to learn Breton Dancing and shed your worries with a session of laughter yoga.

Meanwhile a programme of events will take place in the Swan Centre and out on the street at Rathmines Square. These will include lots of family entertainments, busking, face-painting, dance etc. All sounds great and it's all free

You Know The Woman That

Her hand is tracing a face;
she sees it where her fingertips are
running down the cheek,
following along the jaw,
sweeping off the chin.

And then it seems
she doesn’t see it anymore;
standing outside Tesco’s,
her hands in mid air,
tears running down her face.

Nor does she see the procession of stares,
that great gobbling curiosity,
but gathers herself and bag,
crosses to the green grocer’s
and is, in a moment,busy pricing lettuce.

Invitation to Irish Authors to Submit Poetry/Short Stories

Stephen Behrendt,Interim Senior Editor of Prairie Schooner, the oldest continuously publishing academic literary journal in the United States writes to say that he wishes to publish a special issue of the journal featuring the work of contemporary Irish writers, including both poetry and short fiction. He is hoping to have all submissions in hand by 1 May 2011, so that the issue can appear in early 2012. He is looking for previously unpublished work, which can be sent as email attachment to: sbehrendt1@unl.edu

If you would like to have a look at the Prairie Schooner website, here is the link:
http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/index.html

Roscommon Childhood

Roscommon, and the memories of a happy childhood there, in a poem that starts off realistically but ends with a skyscape transposed to earth. The child's imagination makes the place a Paradise at the close.


Frosty Morning From My Parents Bedroom

The music box plays
my mother’s glass-topped
mahogany
dressing table;

the frost-petalled
window
with a peep hole
for my blue eye;

a hedge of brittle
looping briars,
Curley’s field a flood
of sugary brilliance;

the beeches,
their heads in the stratosphere;
a barbed-wire fence
staggering between them;

abbey ruins,
a spire and steeple:
Roscommon town
cocooned beside

an ocean of duck egg blue
that rolls into a bay
beneath snowy mountains
a million miles away.