Cork Spring Poetry Festival - Saturday 1

I attended the Carolyn Forché workshop/masterclass on Saturday morning at Cork Spring Poetry Festival. The eleven participants had sent in a poem each and these were circulated some days beforehand so I had a chance to read and think about all the poems. Great poems but a very mixed bunch as regards theme, style and even shape.

The participants had either a  first collection recently published or were on the verge of having one published. Some I knew, others I didn't. We did the introductions, told a little about ourselves, including one strange thing each.

Carolyn outlined her approach. She had carefully considered each poem in advance and had made notes on the pages. She began each response with a general reaction to the poem, a larger look, and then suggested some elements which might need attention. As she dealt with each poem she discussed some general issues - enjambment, how much do you tell the reader, when do you know the poem is finished etc.

And she had the endearing habit of ending her suggestions of changes with "But I may be wrong". She advised waiting a few days before deciding whether to implement suggested changes or not. The participants were invited to contribute their ideas on the poems as well and this added a lot to the session.

My poem, Dead Man's Shoes, she thought was good, effective but needed some changes. She suggested changing the order of some stanzas and omitting the final one. She spoke about how difficult it is to know when to finish. Often the last line or the last stanza needs to be omitted. As indeed the first stanza often is superfluous.

Some issues which were common to a couple of poems included the question of how much information the reader needs. Two poems had longish explanatory quotes after the title and in general she was against this.

On the other hand some of the poems needed more information to allow the reader into the poem.She advised some scaffolding, some narrative, in order to give the reader some idea of what is happening.

Concrete details are always important, avoid the general, the kind of language which appears in advertisements and publicity. She expressed a liking for longer connected sentences over short stopped sentences. One poem actually consisted of one long sinuous sentence and was very effective.

She spoke of keeping a poet's notebook in which she entered striking images and words she came across. A poet should have a list of loved words which was constantly being added to.

Poems and poets she mentioned in commenting on individual poems included The Instruction Manual by John Ashbury, Questions to Tourists Stopped by the Pineapple Field by W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic's poems on ordinary items such as The Fork, and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish.

And much much more. All delivered in a friendly, serious, interested tone. Thanks to Carolyn and the other participants it was a pleasure to attend.


Carolyn Forché is included in the audio podcast series, Essential American Poets. An audio of her reading in 2007 at the University of Arizona is online here. A video of another Arizona reading is on Vimeo here, screenshot above, and a reading at the Rothko Chapel in 2010 is here. Lots on YouTube as well.

Now back to the Dead Man's Shoes!

Cork Poetry Festival - Friday

After travelling all the way to Cork I reckoned I should attend all the Friday events at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival. So I did. The great variety of theme and delivery style meant that it was very enjoyable but still by the time the last reading was over after eleven I was ready for sleep.

Dennis O'Driscoll had agreed to read at the festival before his untimely death in December last and the day began with the Dennis O'Driscoll Remembered event. This was a public conversation facilitated by poet and journalist, Gerald Smyth, with Peter Jay (Anvil Press) Joseph Woods (Poetry Ireland) and Patrick Cotter (Festival Director).

This began with the playing of an interview with Dennis which included interesting remarks about reading poetry in public. He spoke about being "ambushed by your own poem" when the emotion involved in the writing of the poem hits the poet as he/she reads it in public.

The discussion was lively, appreciative, informative and enjoyable. Dennis' interest in and promotion of European poets was stressed. His themes were discussed, mortality, the working life, ageing, middle class life. Again and again his humility, his accessibility and his interest in other Irish poets were stressed.

Later in the evening a selection of Irish and international poets read from Dennis' work. It ended with his hilarious The Next Poem which pokes fun at the careless introductions sometimes indulged in by poets at public readings.Required reading for all poets before a public reading.


Anatoly Kudryavitsky, the editor of Shamrock Haiku Journal and of Bamboo Dreams, the Doghouse anthology of Irish haiku, read a selection of his haiku and senryu. He began his reading with a translation of a poem by one of the jailed Pussy Riot members. Cork poet, Gerry Murphy, whose most recent volume is My Flirtation with International Socialism read his generally short, sometimes very funny poems.

John F. Deane and James Harpur read next, both reading material which dealt with religion and spirituality though in different ways and with different emphases. Putting these two together was a great piece of programming. Two excellent readers, James (above) took some time to talk about the personal photographs which were projected at the start of his talk.

Prizewinning Irish writer, Martina Evans, poet and novelist, read extracts from Petrol, her book-length prose poem, which was published by Anvil in September 2012. This was most impressive. She held the audience spellbound with her lively delivery of carefully crafted, very sharply observed material.

The evening finished with readings by accomplished American and Canadian poets both new to me. Carolyn Forché is an award-winning poet whose most recent collections include The Angel of History, Blue Hour and In the Lateness of the World.

Karen Solie is an associate director for the Banff Centre’s Writing Studio program. Her latest collection, Pigeon, won the Pat Lowther Award, the Trillium Poetry Prize, and the Griffin Poetry Prize. Their readings were polished, interesting, nice samples of their work which made me and many others go and buy their poetry books at the book stall in the foyer.

Good audiences, good attendances, a nice friendly atmosphere, a suitably intimate venue and meeting many old and new poetry friends made the evening a very enjoyable experience.

Cork Spring Poetry Festival

The week-end after this sees the first big poetry festival of the year, the Cork Spring Poetry Festival, 13- 16 February.

The website has full details of the programme which includes readings and workshops, book launches and readings by "Cork debutants".

The winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, Judith Barrington, will receive the prize and read from a selection of her poems and the Emerging Poets Reading showcases five writers of talent who have yet to publish a full-length collection of poems, Kate Dempsey, Cal Doyle, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Kerrie O'Brien, and Fiona Smith.

One of the nice things about these festivals is the opportunity to encounter poets one has not heard about before. Confirmed for Cork are Carolyn Forché, Tomaž Šalamun, Gwyneth Lewis, Eduardo C. Corral, Karen Solie, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski.

I have booked a place on the  Carolyn Forché workshop and am really looking forward to it. The Poetry Foundation says of her, "Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, poet, teacher and activist Carolyn Forché has witnessed, thought about, and put into poetry some of the most devastating events of twentieth-century world history."

In tribute to Dennis O’Driscoll who died recently, a new event has been added to the programme. On Friday, 15 February at 2.30pm a free public discussion, 'Dennis O'Driscoll Remembered', will be facilitated by Gerald Smyth, poet, journalist, with the participation of Peter Jay (Anvil Press) Joseph Woods (Poetry Ireland) and Patrick Cotter (Festival Director). Later that evening, after Martina Evans's reading (ticketed) at 8.30pm, a selection of Irish and international poets will read poems by O'Driscoll.