Poetry Ireland Newsis published bi-monthly by

Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann

Designed & Edited by Paul Lenehan and David Maybury

Director: Joseph WoodsAdministrator: Ayoma Bowe

Publications Officer: Paul LenehanMedia Resources: David MayburyEducation Officer: Jane O’Hanlon

(01) 475 8605WiS Development Officer: Anna Boner

(01) 475 8601Development Education: Moira Cardiff

Poetry Ireland, 2 Proud’s Lane, D2Phone: (01) 4789974

Fax: (01) 4780205E-mail: poetry@iol.ie

Web: www.poetryireland.ie

Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann is grant-aided by both Arts Councils in Ireland

Scéala Éigse Éireann

Please send items for publication in the next issue no later than mid-April 2011.Due to space limitations, not every item received can be included in the newsletter.

Visit our website at www.poetryireland.ie to view readings and events not included in this issue.

POETRY IRELAND NEWSMarch / April 2011

SPRING FESTIVALS

editorial / eagarfhocal

Anne Carson will open this year’s Poetry Now festival in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, with a keynote address entitled

The Untranslatable (In All of Us). The festival runs from Thursday 24to Sunday 27 March, based at the Pavilion Theatre, and events

include: a seminar to mark the centenary of the birth of Polish poetCzesław Miłosz (1911–2004), awarded the Nobel Prize in

Literature in 1980; readings with Dave Lordan, Fiona Sampson,Michael Longley, Gerald Stern, Don Paterson and Nuala NíDhomhnaill, among others; and the announcement of the winnersof the Irish Times Poetry Now Award and the Rupert and Eithne

Strong Award. Full details available at www.poetrynow.ie

The twelfth consecutive Franco-Irish Literary Festival, with atheme of Générations / Generations / Glúnta, is based in The Coach

House, Dublin Castle from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 April. This year’sfestival features bi-lingual readings, lectures and discussions withGeneviève Brisac, Virginie Linhart, Phillippe Forest, EricFottorino, Véronique Ovaldé, Claude Arnaud, Mícheál Ó

Conghaile, Caitríona O’Reilly, John Banville, Macdara Woods,Harry Clifton, Keith Ridgway and Paul Murray, among others.

For full details, try www.francoirishliteraryfestival.com

Galway’s Cúirt Festival takes place from Tuesday 12 to Sunday17 April, and among the literary highlights are readings, launchesand discussions with Simon Armitage, Kevin Barry, Sujata

Bhatt, Dermot Healy, Paul Murray, Dennis O’Driscoll, andBloodaxe editor Neil Astley, who will launch Being Human, the

companion anthology to Staying Alive and Being Alive. For a full programme go to www.galwayartscentre.ie

Dear Subscribers,

I’m delighted to report that the Arts Council of Ireland / AnChomhairle Ealaíon has maintained our funding at last year’s levels.This comes as a considerable affirmation for our organisation, andfor the services we provide and the work we do in these difficulteconomic times, and will ensure our vital support for writers andwriting is continued both island-wide and internationally. Thanks also to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for supportingthe exciting development of the extension of the Writers In SchoolsScheme to the North. Based on the success of and response to theBorder Crossings Project – a pilot series of visits/residencies due tofinish this Easter – we anticipate there will be considerable interestin schools’ programmes in Northern Ireland. Spring is upon us and so too are the festivals, be it the Poetry Nowin Dún Laoghaire, Cúirt in Galway, or the Franco-Irish Literary festival in Dublin Castle. And to celebrate Dublin’s establishmentas an UNESCO capital of literature, DublinSwell will take place on18 March in the Convention Centre on North Wall Quay, for whatpromises to be an extraordinary night of literature and music; despite the size of the venue, the word is to book early. Lastly, congratulations to poet and former editor of Poetry IrelandReview Peter Sirr, who won the Michael Hartnett Award for hiscollection The Thing Is.

– Joseph Woods, Director

MICHAEL HARTNETT POETRY AWARD

LUNARDear pea-head, in your lunar languagetell us again how the world stirs,how things appear, hold still, drift;how the light startles and the dog eruptsat dawn to shout creation down,how smiles begin and faces blunder closethen far, and sing. Give us the seal-note,bird-trill, warble, let rip, tell uswhat the gods want of us, who your leader is,how to sing, like you, under the language,like stars, like submarines, like the spiritsof everything here, like a sleeve of wrensloosed from a hedgerow and lifted clear ...

– Peter Sirr, from The Thing Is

Peter Sirr is the winner of the 2011 MichaelHartnett Poetry Award for his collection TheThing Is (Gallery Press), described by adjudicatorsJames Harpur, Thomas McCarthy and MaryO’Malley as a work of great technical skill in verse-craft that is lifted beyond mere craft by the power ofreflective waiting. Peter Sirr, a previous winner ofthe Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, and formerDirector of the Irish Writers’ Centre, will acceptthe award at the opening of Éigse Michael Hartnett on Thursday April14 in Hartnett’s home town of Newcastle West, Co Limerick(www.eigsemichaelhartnett.ie). The Michael Hartnett Poetry Award /Gradam Bliantúil Filíochta i gCuimhne ar Mhícheál Ó hAirtnéide isjointly funded by Limerick County Council and The Arts Council.

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 1

readingsléamha

Poetry Ireland ReadingsAll Poetry Ireland events are admission free except where indicated. To confirm, use local contact details or tel. 01 4789974; e-mail info@poetryireland.ie

Friday 4 March @ 6.30pmPoetry Ireland in association with Dublin Book Festival

and Publishing Ireland presentsA Tribute to Steve MacDonogh (1949-2010) MacDonagh will be celebrated by speakers including

Alice Taylor, Ken Bruen,Michael O’Brien, Ronan Sheehan and Gerry Adams

as well as through poetry, stories and music. The tribute will be followed by the launch of Steve’s final project

with Brandon, Corca Dhuibhne by Liam O’NeillT. 01 4151210 E. info@dublinbookfestival.com

W. dublinbookfestival.com

Saturday 19 March @ 11.30amPoetry Ireland is association with the SiarScéal Festival

presents Dermot BolgerThe Abbey Hotel, Abbey St, Roscommon, Co Roscommon

T. 087 2628191 W. www.siarsceal.com

Saturday 26 March @ 8pm Poetry Ireland in association with The Forge at Gort Festival

presents Olaf Tyaransen & Clare SawtellAdmission: €4/3 Sullivan's Royal Hotel, Gort, Co Galway

T. 091 564822 ext 312 E. sylfredcar@iolfree.ie

Wednesday 30 March @ 7.30 pm Poetry Ireland in association with Doghouse Books presents Aidan Hayes, Mae Leonard, Karen O’Connor,

Anatoly Kudryavitsky & Tommy Frank O’ConnorSiamsa Tíre Theatre, Tralee (Adm. €9/6)

T. 066 7137547 E. info@doghousebooks.ie

Thursday 31 March @ 6.30 pm Poetry Ireland presents Philip McDonaghaccompanied by harpist Lily Neill, launching

her new CD, The Habit of a Foreign Sky.Unitarian Church, 112 St Stephen’s Green West, D2

Thursday 31 March @ 6.30 pmPoetry Ireland in association with Over the Edge presents

Miriam Gamble, with James Lawless & Anne McManus

Galway City Library, St. Augustine St, GalwayT. 087 6431748

E. over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

Tuesday 12 April @ 6.30 pm Poetry Ireland in association with the Irish Writers’ Centre, The Royal Danish Embassy in Ireland, The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ireland, NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad),

The Finnish Embassy in Ireland, the Embassy of Sweden in Ireland and the Swedish Arts Council presents a

Nordic Night of poets and poetry featuringTua Forsström, Jan Erik Rekdal,

Morten Sondergaard & Eva RunefeltIrish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Square, D1

T. 01 8721302 E. info@writerscentre.ie

Sunday 1 May @ 3.00pmPoetry Ireland in association with Strokestown International

Poetry Festival presents Peter FallonStrokestown Park House, Strokestown, Co Roscommon.

T. 071 9633 690 E. director@strokestownpoetry.org

W. www.strokestownpoetry.org

Monday 2 May @ 1.15pmPoetry Ireland in association with Drogheda Arts Festival

presents Michael O’Loughlin Droichead Arts Centre, Stockwell St, Drogheda, Co Louth

T. 041 9833946 E. info@droghedaartsfestival.ieW. www.droghedaartsfestival.ie (Adm. €8)

Thursday 5 May @ 6.30 pmPoetry Ireland in association with Doghouse Books presents

the launch of Via Crucis by David Butlerand Capering Moons by Anatoly Kudryavitsky.

Damer Hall, 112 St Stephen’s Green West, D2

Steve MacDonogh Dermot Bolger

Anatoly Kudryavitsky

Olaf Tyaransen Philip McDonagh

Miriam Gamble Tua Forsström Michael O’LoughlinPeter Fallon

Tommy Frank O’Connor

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 2

educationoiliúint

the write residency by enda wyleyPoetry Ireland has over the years sponsored andsupported many valuable Writer in Residenceprogrammes in schools throughout the country.Poet and Children’s writer Enda Wyley is thecurrent Writer in Residence at Loreto DalkeySecondary School, sponsored by Poetry Ireland

and supported by Loreto Dalkey staff andpupils. Here, she describes exercises and

approaches she uses in the poetry workshops she runs for Transition Year students.

We each hold the amethyst at the beginning and the end ofevery poetry workshop. It is lilac at the jagged tips, dark purple in the centre and is said to be the stone of inspiration.So, we pass it from hand to hand, each person telling the restof us a piece of news or something they remembered, over-heard or noticed since last we met – two cats fighting, anangel made of snow, a chimney on fire. Poetry is after all, tobe found in the detail of memory and then is made whole bythe imagination. The amethyst warms us up to the multitude of possibilitiesthat poetry can uncover. And as the stone moves through thegroup, we discover that it changes, just as we do by listeningto the ideas of everyone in the workshop. By the time thestone reaches the last person, it is no longer that icy coldstone that emerged from the bottom of my rucksack but atruly precious stone made warm from the energy of ideas inthe workshop. It is a simple exercise, this passing of the amethyst. But some-how it has helped us to loosen up our senses, free us fromthe tangle of our everyday lives and springboard us into theworld of poetry where everything is possible, if you want it tobe.Now we are set to read and be inspired from other poets.We look at the Czech poet Miroslav Holub’s poem ‘Go andOpen the Door.’ Nobody has heard of him but for now, thatdoesn’t matter. What is important is the poem. It is fresh andsurprising and deceptively simple.

Go and open the door.Maybe outside there’sa tree, or a wood,a garden,or a magic city.

It is also quietly humorous and the last few lines make ussmile. Why must we open the door? Because, Holub tells us,‘At least/ there’ll be/ a draught.’We try writing our own poems using Holub’s first line and

surprise ourselves when the poems begin to flow in the shortspace of time we have for the poetry workshop.‘I never thought before that other people’s poems could inspire me to write,’ someone in the class says and we all nod,pleased with the realisation that this is true. We read ourpoems out loud to each other and like them.We move on. How are poems made? How do we structurethem? What’s the difference between a piece of prose and apoem? We chat about these ideas. Then we get scribblingagain, the pens itching in our hands. We write poems withwishes in them, dreams in them, poems full of lies. Writingpoetry is fun we discover and there are no rules – only the

ones we make up by ourselves for our poems. We feel freeand happy.Today we talk about images. We try writing poems whereone thing is compared to another. We find we can write inmetaphor, without using the words ‘as’ or ‘like’. A building reminds one person of branches against a skyline.Cyclists in a city, make somebody else think of wheat swayingin a field. We read Ezra Pound’s two line poem – yes,poems can be that short! – where his description of a crowdin a métro station in Paris is unexpected and inspiring:

The apparition of these faces in a crowd;petals on a wet, black bough.

Time is nearly up. We pass the amethyst from hand to handand conclude by saying one thing we enjoyed in the classtoday. We are all agreed we want to read more, keep ajournal, write more, before we meet again.I say goodbye, wipe the board clean and place the preciousstone in my bag. On the way to the train station I feel itagainst my lower back, still warm from the energies I’ve leftbehind. When I reach the city, the stone still hasn’t fullycooled down.

It will take a long time to do so.

Enda Wyley (www.endawyley.com) has published four collections ofpoetry with Dedalus Press – most recently To Wake to This in2009. Her books for children include I Won’t Go to China and

The Silver Notebook, both from O’Brien Press.

The Door

Go and open the door.Come to see me, it's okay, But please, Don't let the door get in your way.Go and open the door.Out here there is a blue sky and happy sun.There is beauty and opportunity.Now go, and turn the handle.Go and open the door.Let a gush of wind be your freedom.It will refresh you, clean you.Now go, push the door and allow it disappear.Deep down you know you can open the door.Be aware that you will encounter more.But use that strength to push you forward,And remember,You are far greater than the door you stand before. Carla Celada, Loreto Dalkey Secondary School Student

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 3

opinionstuairimíocht

It began for me with two performancesin 1988, one by Patrick Deeley, theother by Diarmuid Lynch-Ó Dálaigh.Though in my early stages as a poet, Ihad already decided on an approach tocomposition: I would shape the formdirectly from the feeling and I wouldn’tcensor my language. Publication andvocal delivery weren’t yet issues for me,but watching those two very differentpoets reciting without text awoke afancied heritage of bardic performancethat gave me a sense of mission. I stillsee them, how their words seemed tobe living in them, straining their chestsand pushing out their foreheads.

Inspired, Gerry McGovern and Iorganised some multi-mediaperformance nights, which, fired byfandom and hubris, were christenedExploding Plastic Inevitable. Taking partwere people who are still on the Dublinscene and some who, sadly, no longerperform – Mael Coll Rua andWhipping Boy among the best.

I was socially inept, bad at confrontationand unable to deal with criticism. Notthe best personality for embarking on acourse of declamation, iconoclasm andself-exposure. Thankfully, the debilitieswere containable. I put on whateverarmour was necessary and proceededto do a job. To my introspective anduncool self, the possibility that I mightbe part of something radical seemedworth the effort. In practice, much of itwas self-immolation. I never becamepart of any ‘scene’. I made a point ofbeing indifferent to praise and resistantto adoption by radical coteries. I wantedto explore, as faithfully as possible, thephenomenon of my existence.

I’ve always been attracted toperformance. I trained in stagecraft andtook part in some productions. Butperforming your own work is terrifyingin the initial stages. In a play you loseyour personality in the character andsomeone else’s words, but when youstand page-less to present a poem, youare naked and alone. You embody thetext.

It wasn’t just the romantic notion of abardic tradition. Public Enemy hadjust taken to the world stage andspoken-word performance had energyand relevance. Some rap was reallygood, and Britain had a huge array of

exciting artists, from John CooperClarke to Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze. It alsoseemed necessary to address thepolitical situation. Source and story,philosophy and psychology, comprisedmy more natural habitat, but in the lateeighties, Ireland was shivering in theuncertain hands of censorship and socialflux. If I were to write seriously, evenself-obsessed little I felt that I couldn’tturn a blind one. There was alsofeminism, which I had discovered late.

Did the performing make my poetryinferior? Yes and no. During the heavierpolitical phase, I was often polemical,simplistically formulaic and hasty inconcept. Within a few years, I hadresumed my closer work with conceptand form, though I still composed withan eye to dramatic potential. If print is ayardstick, I’ve been shortlisted in a fewcompetitions, published in manyjournals and anthologies, and mycollections come from three publishinghouses. At my lowest textual ebb, Ithink the audience at least experiencedverbal fluency, passion and a physicalengagement with words that wasrelatively unusual.

I’ve sometimes regretted the decisionto publish in the vocal moment moreoften than on the page. If I hadn’t spentall that time working with samples andrecordings, training my voice and body, Imight have twenty published collectionsby now. I did, after all, write several

well-researched novels, and haveanother large prose work in progress.At present I’m focused on a mix of pageand performance and am glad to haveembraced what is now a renascent art.

So what’s it all about? For me it’s aboutsourcing the physical motivation behindthe thought. My basic method is to minemy body for its reactions to chosenthemes, listen to the rhythms thatemerge and fit words to the rhythms.Lately, I often remain more distant frommy themes, but for the narrative poemsand those that describe emotions, Iusually work from body-feel. I then liketo let the words sing, and be sung by,the body. This act becomes part of thepublication process. Performance poetsare, predictably, physically expressive.Another major component is empathy. Iwant to reach out and touch someone.The desire to create a circle ofcommunication drives the performance.At one event someone said, ‘The otherstold us how it was; you took us there.’

Performance poets are often very wellread and are not necessarily inattentiveto detail. Verbal simplicity and play canbe deceptive. I’m very impressed by thequality and experimentation of manypoets on the lively contemporarycircuit. However, there are performancepoets who play slavishly to theaudience, who think their presentationmust be light, ‘positive’ and moral. Thisis also a common practice among poetswho don’t consider themselvesperformers. I don’t think we shouldapologise for depressing, disturbing orbewildering. When we present thetruest poem we can manage, we offer amemorable experience.

Discipline and preparation matter. Arakish performance will work, a carelessone will not. But the key, the absolutenecessity, is a considered and sustainedtheory of the text. This is intellectualpractice and the gig will suffer from itsneglect. Performance poetry at its bestis a fusion of mind and matter.

Máighréad Medbh’s most recent collectionis Twelve Beds for the Dreamer

(Arlen House, 2010). Her website is www.maighreadmedbh.ie

THE EMBODIED TEXT by MÁIGHRÉAD MEDBH

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 4

competitions, etccomórtaisí, srl

FESTIVALS, COMPETITIONS, ETC

WILLIAM TREVOR / ELIZABETH BOWEN SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Entries are now being accepted for the inaugural WilliamTrevor / Elizabeth Bowen short story competition, which

has a total prize fund of €4,500 available for stories of nomore than 3,000 words. The adjudicators are

Vincent McDonnell & John McKenna, the deadline for entries is Friday 29 April. For an entry form go to

www.mitchelstownlit.com or contact Poetry Ireland.

WIGTOWN POETRYWigtown, on the south-west coast of Scotland, is ‘home to

900 people, a malt whisky distillery and, since 1988, a quarterof a million books’ (see www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk).

The Wigtown Poetry Competition, run in conjunction withthe Wigtown Book Festival, has categories for poems in

English, Scots and Scots/Irish Gaelic, judged by Brian Johnstone, Rab Wilson and

Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul, respectively. The closing date is Tuesday 3 May.

For further details or to enter online go towww.wigtownbookfestival.com or contact Poetry Ireland.

OVER THE EDGE COMPETITIONThe 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year

Competition, for poets and fiction writers, is open for entriesuntil Wednesday, 3 August, and offers a total prize fund of

€1,000. The authors of the winning poem and story will vie forthe title of New Writer of the Year and for the

opportunity to read at an Over The Edge event in Galway.This year's judge is Elaine Feeney, whose first full collectionof poetry, Where’s Katie?, was published last year by Salmon.

For full details, visithttp://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

THE FORGE AT GORTThe Forge at Gort festival, run by the Western Writers’Centre, takes place on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 March in

Gort, Co Galway. Participants include The Poetry Chicks,Michael Kearney, a Poetry-Ireland sponsored reading withOlaf Tyaransen & Clare Sawtell (see Readings page),

Paul Jeffcut, John W Sexton and the première of Tea WithGeorge Moore, a celebration of the life and work of George

Moore by Margaretta D’Arcy and John Arden.T. 091 564822 (Ext. 312) E. westernwriters@eircom.net

W. www.twwc.ie

TRINITY WRITING WORKSHOPIn his capacity as Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin,

Hugo Hamilton will lead a (free of charge) writing work-shop on Friday 25 March–Saturday 26 March, and Friday 1

April–Saturday 2 April. Applicants should submit by post (noe-mail) a single piece of prose not exceeding 1000 words tothe Oscar Wilde Centre, School of English, Trinity College

Dublin, 21 Westland Row, D2, no later than Friday 18 March.Further info from lifoley@tcd.ie

ANNE ENRIGHTEdited by Claire Bracken and Susan Cahill, Anne Enright is

the first book-length study of the 2007 Man-Booker Prize winner’s work. The book, published by Irish Academic Press,

will be launched on Thursday 24 March at 6pm in The OakRoom, Mansion House, Dawson St, D2. Moynagh Sullivanfrom NUI Maynooth is Guest Speaker, and Anne Enrightherself will be in attendance to read from her new book,

The Forgotten Waltz. Admission free, all are welcome.

QUBHighlights of the Spring season at The Seamus Heaney Centre

for Poetry (Queen's University, Belfast) include Michael Longley on Thursday 31 March at 8pm in the Great Hall, and

a reading from Irish-language poets, Philip Cummings,Gearóid MacLochlainn and Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, in

the Seminar Room, Seamus Heaney Centre, on Friday 13 May. For a full programme go to www.qub.ac.uk/heaneycentre

POETRY AND PENITENCEOn Saturday April 2 Maurice Harmon will give two talks

(morning and afternoon) on ‘Poetry and Penitence’, followedby a discussion, at Avila, Carmelite Centre, Bloomfield

Avenue, Morehampton Rd, D4. Admission free, all welcome. T. 01 6430200 for start times and enquiries.

DEDALUS LAUNCHOn Tuesday 5 April at 7pm in the Irish Writers’ Centre,

19 Parnell Sq, D1, Dedalus Press will launch three new collections of poetry:

Piano by Eva BourkeSorrow’s Egg by Katherine Duffy

Hombre: New and Selected Poems by Gerard FanningT. 01 8721302

E. info@writerscentre.ie / editor@dedaluspress.com

MA IN POETRY STUDIES AT MDIThe Mater Dei Institute of Education is offering a MA in

Poetry Studies, available either part-time (2 years) or full-time(1 year). The course aims to provide ‘a necessary bridge to the

study of poetry at doctoral level, but also to provide a sense of disciplinary confidence to those who write and read poetry forpleasure.’ Modules available for the MA include the poetic

representation of Italy from Virgil to the present; Elizabeth Bishop; the Lyric tradition from Sappho to Hip-Hop;

Contemporary Poetries; and a Poetry Studies Workshop. For more information, contact Michael Hinds (Programme

Co-ordinator), Mater Dei Institute of Education, Clonliffe Rd,D3, on 01 808 6527, or e-mail michael.hinds@materdei.dcu.ie

DUBLINSWELLDublinSwell is ‘an evening of imagination and inspiration’ tocelebrate Dublin’s status as an UNESCO City of Literature,and features leading names from the worlds of literature,

music film and theatre, including:Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, Damien Dempsey,Roddy Doyle, Paul Durcan, Christine Dwyer Hickey,

Glen Hansard, Paul Howard (aka Ross O’Carroll Kelly),Declan Hughes, Biddy Jenkinson, Claire Kilroy,

Paula Meehan, Joseph O’Connor, Seamus Heaneyand actors from the Abbey Theatre company.

The event takes place on Friday 18 March @ 7.30pm at theConvention Centre, Spencer Dock, North Wall, D1.

To Book: www.tickets.ie/DublinSwell or T. 0818 33 32 31.Tickets: €18, €21, €25, incl. booking fee.

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 5

opinionstuairimíocht

Poems about poetry can be awfullydiscouraging, but a good one I oftencome back to, for my own obscurereasons, is this short poem by RobertGraves:

DANCE OF WORDSTo make them move, you should start from lightning

And not forecast the rhythm: rely on chanceOr so-called chance for its bright emergenceOnce lightning interpenetrates the dance.

Grant them their own traditional steps and posturesBut see they dance it out again and againUntil only lightning is left to puzzle over –The choreography plain, and the theme plain.

There’s a great steadying sanity in thatpoem, as there is in the 1962 lectureson poetry that Graves gave in Oxford.When he writes about poems, his ownor another’s, Graves is patently sincerein his intention, which is to give hisopinion as a diligent craftsman on thework under scrutiny. His criticalwritings are a kind of curiosity; the styleis low-key, anecdotal, a kind ofreportage; he neither seeks to establish,not appears to see any merit in,anything resembling a “first principles”critical method.

For the Russian Formalists, according toTerence Hawkes, poetry … wasmade out of words, not ‘poetic’subjects. For Graves also, the word,allied with and informed by a livelysense of its history of usage and itsetymology, is the basis of poetry:a poet lives with his own language,continually instructing himself in theorigin, histories, pronunciation andpeculiar usages of words, together withtheir latent powers, and the exactshades of distinction between whatRoget’s Thesaurus calls ‘synonyms’ – butare there any such things? … A poetmay make his own precedents, indisregard of any law of correctness laiddown by grammarians – so long as theyaccord with the natural genius ofEnglish.

Similarly, Saussure’s individuation ofthe two realms of langue and parolewould not be, to Graves, an alienconcept. He is aware that the entiretyof a language is anterior to any givenutterance, and that speech, parole, the

usage of words, stands in dialecticalrelationship to the invisible langue.

Graves says:

In a true poem, produced by the deeptrance that integrates all the memories ofthe mind, the dormant powers of eachword awake and combine with those ofevery other, building up a tremendous headof power. How far the reader is consciousof the inter-related sounds and meaningsdepends on how much of a poet he, or she,is: for I allow the title of poet to all whothink poetically, whether writers or not.

For Graves, poetry arrives from‘otherwhere’. He maintains that thepoet’s attention is somehow forciblyattracted, even seized, and further thatthe force which presses the poem onhim is an organizing force, requiringcertain predispositions of the poet’smind in order to be received, containingits own lineaments in protean form:all poems, it seems, grow from a smallverbal nucleus gradually assuming anindividual rhythm and verse form. Thewriting is not ‘automatic’, as in amediumistic trance when the pentravels without pause over the paper,but is broken by frequent criticalamendments and excisions. And thoughthe result of subsequently reading apoem through may be surprise at theunifying of elements drawn from somany different levels of consciousness,this surprise will be qualified bydissatisfaction with some lines.Objective recognition of the poem as anentity should then induce a lightertrance, during which the poet realizes

more fully the implications of his lines,and sharpens them. The final version(granted the truthfulness of its originaldraft, and the integrity of any secondaryelaboration) will hypnotize readers whoare faced by similar problems intosharing the poet’s emotionalexperience.

For Graves, the poetic trance isintegrative, not reductive; the poetictrance involves a heightening, not adiminution of powers — in this trancethe mind is more, not less, conscious ofitself, of the phenomenal world and ofits own operations. Apparentlydisparate thoughts, feelings, events areseen as structurally interdependent andmutually informing – the whole issuingin an artefact, the poem, which has thepower of compelling attention, of re-invoking experience.

One of the things I like in Graves is thathis descriptions of poem-making have anundemonstrative, matter-of-fact quality:

The Vienna school of psychology presumesa conscious and unconscious mind as twoseparate and usually warring entities; but apoet cannot accept this. In the poetictrance he has access not only to theprimitive emotions and thoughts which liestored in his childhood memory, but to allhis subsequent experiences – emotionaland intellectual; including a wide knowledgeof English won by constant critical study.Words are filed away by their hundredthousand, not in alphabetic order but inrelated groups; and as soon as the tranceseizes him, he can single out most of theones he needs. Moreover, when the firstheavily-blotted draft has been copied outfairly before he goes to bed, and laid asidefor reconsideration, he will read it the nextmorning as if it were written by anotherhand. Yet soon he is back in the trance,finds that his mind has been active while hewas asleep on the problem of internalrelations, and that he can substitute theexact right word for the stand-in with whichhe had to be content the night before.

Sounds about right to me.

Theo Dorgan’s most recent publicationsinclude the poetry collection Greek

(Dedalus, 2009) and the memoir Time onthe Ocean: Sailing from Cape Horn to

Cape Town (New Island, 2010).

KEEPING IT STEADY by THEO DORGAN

PIN_working_Poetry_Aloud 09/03/2011 10:41 Page 6