Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Winter 2018 and start of a new year

In November 2018 I returned from my month long life changing journey to India.  I have wonderful memories of the people and places I visited.  The high point was my poetry reading at the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi and meeting with Indian writers.  My blog on India with links to photos etc is available for anyone who is interested.

During the Ó Bhéal Winter Warmer Poetry Festival in Cork in November I read the poem 'Goalkeepers' by the gentle poet Bernard O'Donoghue.  This was part of a Hurling themed poetry reading.

Those of us who presented papers as part of the 'Missing Voices' seminar at Poetry Ireland in October 2018 were asked to submit the papers for a publication to be launched in 2019.  I submitted my paper on Dorothea Herbert in January.

Early in February I visited Belfast to see and listen to the contributions in the Poetry Jukebox at the Crescent Arts Centre.  Included are two recordings by myself - my own poem 'The Last Walk' and 'Whistler's White Girl' by Eleanor Rogers Cox.  The Poetry Jukebox in Ireland is the work of Maria McManus.

My work life has changed as I move from writing in my spare time and working as a professional IT person to writing full time.  I have some other plans which I may share later this year.

In the meantime I continue to write and this year will return to submitting work with a view to publication.  I have a poetry manuscript which I am hoping may find a home within the next year.