Category Archives: PortfolioPrint
Poem in Poetry as Commemoration Jukeboxes & at Verbal Arts Centre, Derry
I am honoured and delighted to have my poem on the Irish Civil War among the 20 poems related to the Decade of Centenaries 1912 – 1922 that are featured in the Poetry As Commemoration Poetry Juke Boxes in Derry and Limerick from May to July this year.
The Irish Civil War, County Tipperary, Summer, 1922 describes an incident in which my mother, then a seven-year-old, was caught up. Her memories of violence influenced my experience of The Troubles.
New Poetry Jukebox Commemorates Complex Shared History in Derry~Londonderry
I’ve written about this in an earlier blog (below) which contains a link to the poem on the Virtual Poetry Wall of Poetry As Commemoration.
On 23rd August I took part in a reading at Derry’s Verbal Arts Centre, featuring Stephen Sexton (one of the ten poets commissioned by the project) along with Carole Farnan, Maria McManus, Julie Morrissy, and Dominic J. Sweeney.
You can listen to the poems featured in this curation here.
- ‘Ossuary’ by Seán Hewitt
- ‘Poppies In A Field Of Shamrocks’ by Nithy Kasa
- ‘The Belfast Pogrom: Some Observations’ by Paul Muldoon
- ‘Hogan, Grianghrafadóir’ by Aifric Mac Aodha & transl. by David Wheatley
- ‘Blood pulled my Shoe Off: The Birth of the Freestate in the Words of Máire Comerford’ by Martina Evans
- ‘Wound’ by Chiamaka Enyi Amadi
- ‘The Head of a Man’ by Stephen Sexton
- ‘Special Topics in Commemoration Studies: The Kerry Archives’ by Victoria Kennefick
- ‘The Lookout’ by Bebe Ashley
- ‘This Video Has No Sound’ by Padraig Regan
- ‘Faithful Comrade and Life Long Friend’ by Julie Morrissy
- ‘Telescope’ by Eoghan Totten
- ‘Without Fuss or Splutter’ by Ann-Marie Foster
- ‘Uncle Maurice’ by Ian Duhig
- ‘The Irish Civil War, Co. Tipperary, Summer 1922’ by Angela Graham
- ‘Bloody Sunday, 21st of November 1920, Croke Park’ by David McLoghlin
- ‘Cogadh na gCarad ó Bhéal mo mháthar’ by Mike MacDomhnaill
- ‘Eliza’ by Karl O’Hanlon
- ‘Yew’ by Karen J. McDonnell
- ‘Kingdom’ by Brian Kirk
The Hamely Pen on Poetry Day Ireland
April 27th Poetry Day Ireland – Theme ‘Message in a Bottle’.
The Hamely Pen is a group of writers in Ulster-Scots
Here we step forward with a taster of work – our message to the world
from Anne McMaster, Steve Dornan, Robert Campbell, Al Millar and me.
Enjoy!
Sanctuary.. in Wales Arts Review’s top poetry of 2022
We’ve been treated to a year full of delightful and heart-wrenching collections from all across Wales, and naming our choices has been particularly tough for our contributors. That said, we take great pleasure in revealing the best Welsh poetry releases of 2022
Written in collaboration with poets (Phil Cope, Viviana Fiorentino, Csilla Toldy and Glen Wilson), Angela Graham’s Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere is an innovative collection that Graham herself states ‘moves from war, to migration, to the alienation imposed by illness (a kind of expulsion from the sanctuary of Eden), to the numinosity of the natural world, to the pandemic, and ends with an assertion that sanctuary is something we can be.’
Read Angela Graham’s introduction to Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere here.
This collection, published by Welsh company Seren Books ,was developed with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Review of Sanctuary… in Nation Cymru
By Caroline Bracken:
Angela Graham’s poetry collection ‘Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere‘ is an interesting concept. As well as her own poems, it includes poems she wrote collaboratively with Phil Cope, Viviana Fiorentino, Mahyar and Csilla Toldy.
Her mentor Glen Wilson also contributed a poem, ‘Border Crossing, Reynosa to Hidalgo’, a gorgeous poem with more questions than answers:
‘There is buzzing behind the bevel of the two-way mirror,
I imagine the voices of the hidden judges there’
The collaborative poems all allow the contributing poets’ voices to shine and feel very different to Graham’s own. For example Mahyar’s ‘You’ is end-rhymed:
‘When I was drinking shot after shot
When I was reading Rubaiyat
When I was reading Khayyam’s couplets
When the book got wet with my tears’ droplets’
Csilla Toldy’s ‘Sanctum Trilogy’ is written in three sections, ‘Resistance’ ‘Refuge’ and ‘Resilience’ and is more experimental in form:
‘Forget the borders, tie up your tongue
here you are safe – between the walls of this place.
Stay put for now, We will decide –
wait
w a i t
w a i t
w a i t’
Phil Cope gives us a panoramic, bird’s-eye sequence of the Welsh landscape:
‘A brace of peregrines, monogamous
though solitary throughout the year,
rendezvous up here each April,
drawn by this cliff’s magnetism,
egged on by legacy,
reliable in the knowledge of
a ledge, secure on Darren Fawr
to raise two chicks, then leave.’
Angela Graham’s wonderful poem ‘A Heerd tha Sodjer on tha Radio’ which won the Linen Hall Ulster Scots Writing Competition is included. Her other poems work best when they steer away from prose and allow the image to be seen, as in ‘Annunciation, Visitation’
‘After the angel left her what was the girl to do?
I see her stand, go to the window,
look out at the utterly familiar street.
A neighbour, jovial, passes and she smiles
─ too soon for speech. She looks down
at her utterly familiar hand
resting on the white stone sill.’
And ‘Persian New Year’
‘Let me give you gorse,
the ungraspable, the unlikely
solder-drops splattered on my hedges
by the sun torching its way out of winter.’
The last word goes to Viviana Fiorentino, from ‘In This Sanctuary’
‘You blue tit, jackdaw or young doe
you, overflow, the breaker of borders
of species, you know it will not matter
that you were males or females, your voice
is
singing’
London Grip Review of Sanctuary…
“hugely experimental… as praxis, the project seems politically perfect, an unselfish poetic gesture underlining the ‘unevenness’ of sanctuary that is genuinely thought-provoking.” Tim Murphy
Sanctuary reading at Sustainable Wales
I was delighted to read from my poetry collection at arts space, The Green Room above Sustainable Wales’s colourful, intriguing shop, SUSSED Wales. This is an ethical community co-operative selling fair trade local and international goods in James Street, Porthcawl. Commitment to a just food policy is a major focus. What better time than the start of
A special dinner will be held at Porthcawl’s Atlantic Hotel to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sustainable Wales. 8th March. Tickets here. Continue reading Sanctuary reading at Sustainable Wales
Poem in Poetry As Commemoration
As soon as I learned about Poetry as Commemoration I wanted to write something for it.
2022-2023 marks the centenary of one of the most challenging periods in Irish history including the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the establishment of the Free State and the ensuing Civil War. As we embark on this difficult phase of the Decade of Centenaries, Poetry as Commemoration invites communities to turn to poetry as a mode of understanding and expression.
It is an all-island initiative, organised by the Irish Poetry Reading Archive at University College Dublin and the Irish Government’s Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
My poem below is available to read on the site:
My Creative First / Fy Ngham Creadigol Cyntaf
I’m a big fan of initiatives that connect people and enable sharing so I was very pleased to be interviewed by Carys Bradley-Roberts of Creative Cardiff.
Creative Cardiff is a network which connects people working in any creative organisation, business or job in the Cardiff region. By encouraging people to work together we believe that we can make Cardiff the most creative place it can be.
Creative Firsts puts the spotlight on people’s first ventures into creativity in a particular field. My Creative First has been moving from film and TV into the world of books via Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere my poetry collection, and my short story collection A City Burning. I had a lot to learn.
I describe the experience in the interview here.
Mae fe ar gael yn y Gymraeg hefyd / It’s available in Welsh too: Cam Creadigol Cyntaf
Take a look at other Creative Firsts here
Reading at The Murenger
I was delighted to be invited by Alan Roderick to read at The Murenger pub in Newport’s High Street. The name is memorable. The original murenger collected taxes that maintained the city’s defences in the medieval period. This monthly gathering is one of the most popular gigs for writers in south Wales and, of course, to add to its fame there is Jon Gower’s short story collection, The Murenger .
It is wonderful to be among people who really love writing. There’s no mistaking the genuine commitment to the written word. In the Open Mic session we heard from regulars and a newcomer. The audience was attentive and responsive. and Alan Roderick is a generous and arm host. He gave me a copy of his poetry colleciton, ‘After You’d Gone’. At the station on my way home, I was engrossed in it and missed my train! Apart from that, what more could a writer want?
