Goldsmith Poetry Reading and Prize Giving

I was unable to attend the Goldsmith Poetry Reading and prize giving this Sunday at the poet's birthplace, Pallas, Co. Longford, but I had a very accomplished reporter there.

It did rain and it was cold but in spite of that it was a lovely event, very relaxed and the beautiful setting helped. The wonderfully friendly audience was kept dry by the canopy, kept warm by the raincoats and scarves and cheered by the wonderful poetry on offer.

The event was chaired by Anne Tully of the Festival Committee and the poetry competitions once again received an extremely high quality entry from all over Ireland.

The judge, Noel Monahan of Windows Publications, introduced the three adult prize winners: John Noonan from Dundalk with a lovely poem about glass-blowing; Siobhan Flynn from Dublin with a poem about the last generation making and mending and re-using and of course LitLab’s own Honor Duff with a poem about making friends with a horse.

Heather Brett, also of Windows Publications, was the featured reader and she read several poems from her collections with interesting introductions which were interesting and ended with a lyrical love poem.

The Children’s Poetry Competition once again featured poetry from the children of primary and post primary schools in Longford and Westmeath.The prize winners in the different categories were presented with their awards.

These poems, as usual, were striking in their originality. One was a terrific little poem about keeping a pet cloud in a fridge to chill out and then letting it free, another was a well drawn funny take on space invaders by a nine year old boy. The oldest girl poet had a poem about living in Pallas to tie in with the Festival’s overall theme this year of Citizen of the World.

So, all-in-all a good day despite the weather, and another success for LitLab.