Last Wednesday Open Mic

A couple of us from the Boyne Writers attended the Last Wednesday open mic in Cassidy's Westmoreland Street last night. This monthly session is organised by Seven Towers. We had two of their writers Oran Ryan and Ross Hattaway down for our Boyne Readings two months ago so we made the return journey last evening.

An enjoyable evening, a friendly crowd in the region of 25-30 and some excellent readings which included hip hop and a blues song. We even sold some Boyne Berries magazines. As usual at these events we meet writers who have been published in Boyne Berries. Declan, the MC, did a great job in keeping the evening moving along.

We heard two poems about Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic ash-volcano. One of these was by Eamonn Lynskey whose second collection of poetry, And suddenly, the sun, is to be published soon by Seven Towers. Plenty of prose as well, probably a greater percentage than we usually get in Trim and what a variety, extreme violence to memories of leaving Ireland in the 80s.

I read three pieces from my walking into Dublin long poem which seem to go down fairly well and I even had a request for my Auschwitz poem from Oran Ryan who heard it a couple of years ago in Longford.

Picture: Boyne Writer, Orla Fay reading at the Last Wednesday.

More poetry tonight in Cavan at Noel Monahan's launch - Busy Week.