Looking Back

after Patrick Kavanagh.



On College Street in September
I saw him standing there
At a bus stop waiting
Destination – I know not where
I stood, I stared, what should I do?
We were once a pair
Although ours was a brief affair.

In duffle coat and baggy pants
A rucksack on his back
Dishevelled and alone
And I had shared his past.
The lines and rhymes we wrote
I have them still
I asked have I a duty to fulfil?

Crowds walked by unknowing
Autumn leaves rustled past my feet
The railings kept me anchored
Unable to proceed.

A long pause, and then
Love’s altered in those hours and weeks
I’m through with heartache
Walking on,
I turned to look
But he was gone.



Eithne Wright 14/12/’09

Me!

ME!



When I am me,
as only me can be,
I will see,
truth-filled reality.

When I’m not me,
and pretence fills my place,
Then I am blinded
by false reality.

To see,
or not to see
would seem to rest with me.
Pray I be free,
to face reality,
and me!



Cáit Breathnach

The Home Place

For Night Light – Rathangan
by Dorothy Smith,
Hidden Histories
13 Sept – 9 Oct 2009






The Home Place





….sure is good to talk to you Brigid…
….you look after the old home place…
….boy we all sure do love that place…
….such memories….




Such memories.
Such memories.
Here am I living in your memories,
in the damp floors,
in the dark parlour where
I alone waked our mam,
in the pokey bedroom
with the flicky street light
The Home place,
where the heart is,
the broken heart





Martin Swords
Wicklow Writers
Poetry Day
October 1st 2009

N81 Late March

For N81

By Dorothy Smith.

Hidden Histories

13 Sept. – 9 Oct. 2009

N81 Late March

two hundred thousand three hundred and twenty five

two hundred thousand three hundred and twenty six

two hundred thousand three hundred and twenty seven

two hundred thousand three hundred and twenty eight

too many snowflakes to count, a confounding softness

traffic peters to nothing, silence rushes in

pale quiet spreads and settles softly on the ground

a white van, swanlike, glides slowly towards Tullow

I cannot count the flakes, I count the footsteps missing in the snow

the Byrne boys in Birmingham, Billy, gone to Glasgow,

all of the Powers except Granny Power, still next door

Imelda, who I always liked, with the black baby, gone, somewhere

N81, this feckin’ road leads everywhere and nowhere

taking, always taking, never bringing back

a few hours peaceful, in its coat of bridal white

soon it will revert to lonely emigration black

Martin Swords

September 2009

Wicklow Writers

Poetry Day

October 1^st 2009

The Courthouse Arts Centre

Tinahely

Co. Wicklow

All-Ireland Poetry Day October 1st 2009

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Wicklow Writers were invited by The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely to co-operate with Artist Dorothy Smith in a unique celebration of All-Ireland Poetry Day.

Dorothy Smith's exhibition "Hidden Histories" was on view in the Arts Centre 13th Sept. - 9th Oct. and Wicklow Writers were invited to select paintings and write a poem about or inspired by the paintings.

The Writers also held a workshop with the local I.C.A. group on "Poetic Responces to Art" and some of the group joined the writers with their Poems in celebrating Poetry Day.

Wicklow Writers Carol Boland, Edward Ryan and Martin Swords, together with I.C.A. members

enjoyed a wonderful evening of stimulating Art and Poetry. Artist Dorothy Smith said she was moved, enthralled and surprised with the Poetic responses to her work, and all agreed that All-Ireland Poetry Day was well and truly celebrated in the Arts Centre in Tinahely

Pictured: Wicklow Writers Carol Boland and Martin Swords together with Artist Dorothy Smith, centre, beside one of Dorothy's paintings, "Night Light - Rathangan"

End of Year Party '08/'09

Wicklow Writers have ended their season for '08/'09 with a bit of a party, a whole lot of work-in- progress and a meeting with special Poetry guests.

At their end of season drinkypoos they were joined by guests Angela Patten and Daniel Lusk, two famous poets now living in Vermont USA who happen to be married, to each other (what do two poets talk about over breakfast, maybe the simile of cornflakes being like flakes of corn ! )

Angela and Daniel, who both teach poetry as well as writing and publishing poetry, told fascinating tales of classes, students, and life in the wildwoods being visited by bears, racoons and mooses (plural of moose??) and probably mice as well.

Thank you Angela and Daniel for a great night. We even took a photo to show we weren't drunk, much.

Pictured with the Wicklow Writers Group were Guest Poets from Vermont, Angela Patten,(2nd from left, front row) and Daniel Lusk(right, back row)

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Wicklow Writers who attended the End Year Bash included:

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Back Row

Carol Boland, Gerry Sheridan, Martin Swords, Fainche Natoff

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Front Seated

Cáit Breathnach, Eithne Wright , Edward Ryan

Bealtaine Festival - May 09

At a reading in Wicklow Library as part of the Bealtaine Festival of May ’09 Wicklow Writers facilitated a session of stories, poems and tales of old times entitled  “The Good Old Days”.

 

They could have talked all night, and very nearly did!

 

 

Pictured at the session are

 

Edward Ryan -  Nora Fleming - Martin Swords 

     Margaret Bloomer - Cáit Breathnach

 

Special thanks to all at Wicklow Library for organising the session and inviting Wicklow Writers

 

Martin Swords