Friday, February 25, 2011

Election Day

Never has an election been more anticipated that the current one here in Ireland, and thanks be to Jaysus the run-up to it wasn't any longer than it has been.

I swear the election posters here in Dundalk were multiplying over night. There's a roundabout near us that, four weeks ago had just four or five posters attached to the iron railings that protect pedestrians from the traffic.

Going through it today, I counted (periphally, of course, I was driving) about twenty. I have to laugh at Fine Gael's 'Five Point Plan - go to wubblywubblywubbly to read all about it'. As if!

Last week, I was up in Donegal for the weekend, a trip which necessitated travelling through Norn Iron twice - it was nice not to be visually assailed by election images for the time it took to go through the north. A visual break, I guess.

Anyhoo, at this stage of the day the deed is done. I have exercised my right to vote, placing preferences all the way down from 1 -16 (I'm old-fashioned and feel the need to vote from last to first - just to make sure I express myself most emphatically!). I feel sorry for anyone in a constituency that has more candidates than that - I hear one of Galway's constituencies has 35 candidates!

One thing for sure: the intricacies of the Proportional Representation Single Transferable Vote make the day after, Saturday, the most interesting day, when we see what it is the Irish people may have actually said. I'll be tuning in around lunchtime, when hopefully all the ballot boxes will have been opened.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

March Date for the Diary

More about that reading in London: *edited in: Weds, 30th March*

OXFAM SPRING CARNIVAL
POETRY NIGHT
FEATURING

Anne Stevenson
Barbara Smith
Don Share
Emma Jones
Jacquelyn Pope
and
Malika Booker

7.30 pm
OXFAM BOOKS AND MUSIC
91 Marylebone High Street
London W1
Nearest tube Baker Street

Admision: £5; concession £3.

Hosted by Todd Swift

ALL PROFITS TO OXFAM.

I can't believe the line-up! Anne Stevenson! Almost this time last year, I was holed up in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, where they have a terrific library of books. There, I found her collected, which I devoured. Poems which I still remember: Granny Scarecrow and Poem for a Daughter. Guess what I've just pulled off my bookshelf to read?

Friday, February 04, 2011

Nothing to Say - So Don't Say Nothing

Sorry, I've been absent for a while, whilst life got on with itself. January was a tough month for many, not just getting over the expenses of Christmas, but the cold weather we experienced really seems to have impacted on people very hard, between burst pipes and trying to stay warm.

Now, it's February, spring feels like it's coming, the days are just starting to push out a little, and I hear myself going around saying, 'It's like November, only backwards.' If it were only that simple.

Still, some things to look forward to: a trip to visit Prague; a reading in London at the close of March - to make up for the one I didn't get to read at ... and Easter is later this year - maybe the weather will be kinder?

So, it's all to look forward to. Wonder what great poetry this year has in store for us then...?

What are you looking forward to? - go on, tell us!