You'll Never Guess!!!

I sent a poem to the RTE Radio 1 programme, The Poetry Programme two weeks ago in response to a request for poems on the subject of Valentine's Day. RTE Radio 1 would be sort of the Irish national equivalent to BBC Radio 4, except without the plummy voices ;)

I received an email back from producer Aoife Nic Cormaic, thanking me for my contribution and telling me that I had been shortlisted for reading during the programme.

I didn't get my hopes up too much and we tuned in on Saturday evening, as myself and hubby were eating our weekly sit-down-and-catch-up-meal, but we missed the opening minutes of the programme, due to the potatoes needing mashing.

We listened to Sally Emerson and Michael O'Loughlin discussing love poetry with the presenter well-known poet Irish poet Pat Boran, citing and quoting some great examples from old and contemporary poets. This was interspersed with readings by Catherine Brennan of reader's contributions.

As the programme progressed hubby said reassuringly, 'I'm sure they'll read yours out.'

I said, no, surely there would be stiff competition and I'd be lucky to get mine read, especially as the short half-hour programme might not fit in the advertised quota of ten. By the close, I wasn't too disappointed and the great poem 'Atlas' by U.A. Fanthorpe was picked out as a particular favourite and read out by Sally Emerson, which made up for it.

Imagine my surprise when I checked the website and clicked on the link for Saturday's programme. The first poem read out was the one I had sent in. Missing the first few minutes of the programme had been crucial, after all!!!

You can listen here if you have Real Player (which I think is still free to DL, if you've not got it) - just fast forward past the news and weather to about 2:50 mins. It's called 'Cupidity'.

The Atlas poem is later, around about 26:00 mins. or so, but the whole programme is interesting in its own right.

You can also catch up with previous Poetry Programmes, and listen to them if you like what you see on the RTE menu!