Poetry Ireland Introductions Part One

The first night of Poetry Ireland Introductions went very well last evening. A great audience, great listeners, sympathetic and ready to respond to every nuance. I was very pleased with my final selection, seven poems sandwiched by two past/present poems, the Ball of Twine to start and the Journey Back to finish.

The Ball of Twine was a late addition but got positive comments afterwards. I had my introductions scripted to ensure that I didn't ramble on so they may have been a bit brief and lacking in spontaneity but I was determined to avoid rambling. The poems were the most important element.

Thanks to all who attended including Honor from LitLab and Orla, Paddy and Evan from Boyne Writers. Great to see fellow poets and bloggers Kate, Peter, Padhraig there as well. Thanks to Paddy and Donna's husband for the photos.

The Writers' Centre is a great venue. It's nice to read upstairs in a pub with an audience of fellow enthusiasts but there is an air of illegal back-room conspiracy about it. The Writers' Centre is a dedicated space, books on the shelves, art on the walls, notices of lots of other events and very friendly welcoming staff and audience. I read there once before at a Windows launch and loved the size of the room, the solid podium and the Sean MacSweeney Sligo bogscape on the wall makes me feel at home.


My fellow readers, Ainín Ní Bhroin, Kimberly Campanello and Donna Sørensen (right to left in the picture above) did very well. Many people remarked on the variety of styles and it's a tribute to Poetry Ireland and the judge, poet Alan Jude Moore that no narrow conception of poetry or poetic style was favoured. As I said before, I was the only male and the oldest by quite a distance and I played on both of these to get a little audience sympathy.

The second part of the Poetry Ireland Introductions 2011 takes place on Wednesday evening next in the Irish Writers' Centre at 6.30. The readers are Eleanor Hooker, Susan Lindsay, Barbara A. Morton, and J.S. Robinson.