Saturday, June 26, 2010

End of Season Party

Wicklow Writers recently held their end of season party in a garden in Hollyfort, Co. Wexford.

Compromising pictures and poems written in chalk on slates in the Poet's Garden will be on view here shortly!

Poetry Comp


The Space Inside are running their first poetry competition, which is open to all ages, shapes and sizes. All you have to do is write a poem inspired by the words ‘the space inside’. The poem can be about anything from the space inside your head, to the space inside a box. Let your imagination go wild!

The winner will receive a hamper crammed with lots of chocolate, wine and other goodies. The runner-up will receive a smaller hamper crammed with just as delicious goodies. Both poems will be published in the Space Inside journal and on our blog.

Keep those creative juices working during the summer months and help us raise funds for our next Space Inside season.

Send your entries with fee of €5, which covers a max of three poems (max 30 lines each) to:

Anne Graham, The Space Inside, 1 Rocky Road, Wicklow Town, Co. Wicklow.

Deadline: Friday 10thSeptember 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

One Finger Up Greeting

One Finger Up Greeting

One finger raised

greeting driver to driver, as I

drive the quiet country

roads round Annamoe.

A man thing it seems to me

says “I see you” and also

“I see you seeing me” in reply.

Women seem to prefer the wave

suggesting friendship and knowing.

But for men one finger seeing is

fine, even with strangers


Why does this gesture come again

to mind lying here in a formula hotel

in Portlaoise?

Unlike quiet Tiglin,

N7 trucks run busy through the night.

Find a scrap of paper,

use a bookies’ pencil, write this

leaning on District and Circle.

Searched the drawer for letterhead

and a Gideon for support, but

no Bible,

only a Golden Pages

in case you’d want to buy rather than pray,

in the wee small hours


The One Finger Up Greeting

on my mind, took me home,

like a prayer, a thought.



Martin Swords

May 2010

Portlaoise

Wicklow Writers at Wicklow Arts Festival2010

Members of Wicklow Writers, Friends, and Visitors at the Cosmic Poetry Readings, held in the Cosmic Garden, as part of Wicklow Arts Festival 2010