Just back from a very enjoyable evening and day at the Patrick Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. The results of the Poetry Competition were announced last evening. First place went to Martin Dyer, a native of Swinford, Co Mayo. Joint second were Shirley McLure, Dublin and Teresa Lally, Mayo. Joint third were Justin McCarthy, Sligo and Michael Farry, Trim (me!). Above the winner with Kavanagh Committee chairman Peter Murphy.
I was delighted to be mentioned, having entered for the past four or five years without any success. Judge, poet Brian Lynch said that my entry, as well as being full of strange and interesting information, was extremely well written and, in the Kavanagh sense, comic. This year instead of putting a collection of twenty poems together I entered two longer sequences of poems which together amounted to twenty.
The main one describes a walk from Ballsbridge to Dublin centre and back while waiting for someone who was having dental treatment in Ballsbridge. It's a wandering freeflowing meander through the city with thought, comments and memories triggered by the sights and sounds and has quotations from songs, novels etc. It's punctuated by factual information on the history of dentistry and especially false teeth. This makes it a bit odd or quirky and I presume this was what caught the judge's attention.
More tomorrow on Kavanagh weekend.
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