Performance Poetry Workshop with Trish Casey

North Beach Nights

presents

A One-Day Performance Poetry Workshop

with

TRISH CASEY.

The workshop will include every aspect of performance preparation
and delivery. Open to participants at every level of experience.

Trish Casey is a graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting.
She also voice-trained and sang with the IORC Academy, Cork.

Trish won the performance prize at the Rattlebag Slam in 2003.
She is the 2004 Cúirt Grand Slam winner and coached
the 2005 Cúirt Grand Slam winner, Stephen Murray.

The One-Day Workshop will take place

on Saturday 8th April from 9.30am to 5.00pm

in BK's Winebar, Spanish Parade, Galway.

Places are limited to 10 Participants. Early Booking is recommended.

Cost of the Workshop: 25 Euro

For registration and more information contact: 086 4046425

'Sarsfield's Children' CD For Sale

As the title suggests the CD contains a series of songs written about Limerick people some famous and some not, included are Richard Harris, Tom and Paschal, Michael Hogan- the Bard of Thomond, Jim Kemmy, Frank Mc Court and others.

The album is dedicated to local boy made good, actor Richard Harris. A special song on the album called ‘A Man Called Harris’ was recorded shortly before the actor died.

…we are made one I with the men of Limerick town and you with the Shannon stream, made one 'till all doing is done. ... A Song of Limerick Town by Desmond O'Grady.

For those interested in purchasing the album contact:

Phoenix records at phrec@eircom.net


TRACKS
Remembering Limerick - Poem. Dare You Ripple My Pond. Hogan The Bard. A Man Called Harris. When Angels Weep. Home To Garryowen. An Innocent Man. From Castlegregory To Carnegie. Angela's Ashes. My Limerick Rose. Do Not Stand At Our Graves And Weep. Ger Brinn Dies In Australia - Poem.

'Songs From The Ashes' CD For Sale

Songs inspired by Frank McCourt's best selling book 'Angela's Ashes'. The CD 'Songs From The Ashes' captures perfectly the mood of the book and the Limerick of the 1930's and 1940's.

More details:

http://whitehousepoets.blogspot.com/2005/12/songs-from-ashes-cd-for-sale.html

White House Poetry Revival Wed 29th Mar. 2006

White House Poetry Revival
Wed 29th March 2006 9.00pm

This weeks special guest is Sandra Bunting

Sandra Bunting is a long-term resident of Galway and is strongly influenced by her Canadian roots while maintaining a love for the west of Ireland especially the city of Galway.With a degree in Communications from Toronto, she has worked in radio, television and print and is now a frequent contributor to various publications. She completed a Masters Degree in Writing at NUI Galway and is now working on several projects.

As usual the reading is preceded by an open mic session in which anyone who wishes to read is invited to do so. Complementary finger food is provided and proceeding commence at 9.00 pm.

For further information contact Barney Sheehan at 086 8657494 or Dominic Taylor at 087 2996409 email whitehousepoets@eircom.net Website http://www.limerick.com/whitehousepoets Blog http://whitehousepoets.blogger.com/

Poem Of The Week 'Square Dancing' by Maggie Harris

SQUARE DANCING


Remember that square in Kilrush, Co Clare
folk violins in the rain?
The town was out dancing
the dance caller calling
another two for the frame

Square-shouldered we stood by the side of the road
and watched as they circled -
old men of eighty, young girls of ten
Mammies and Daddies
waltzed and reeled and twirled

And my dreams lay down on the stones there
the whole of the moon in my eyes
and they danced, they danced
right over my bones
through the shawl I’d worn for the night
in their strong country brogues
and silver-heeled shoes
skipped light through the pores of my skin

and my head turned too, and my eyes drew
her there by the side of the road
the whole of her face in the dream of the dance
with her feet in a beat on the stone

Square-shouldered you stood
by the side of the road
while her eyes so wild for the dream of the night
calling and calling
the moon’s cold falling
on feet and earth
and rhythms bleeding
dances of rain in that square
in Kilrush, Co Clare


Maggie Harris is originally from Guyana, she now lives in Kent, and work full time as a poet and festival director of the Inscribing the Island Literature Festival in East Kent. Her first collection Limbolands (see www.mangoprint.com) won the Guyana Prize for Literature 2000. She also have 2 cds incorporating songs, poetry and music, one for adults, 'listen to de riddum' and one for young people, 'Anansi meets Miss Muffet' recipient of an East England Arts Award. In 1994 she was selected as part of the Women Writers Exchange. Currently working on a memoir about growing up in Guyana.

Launch Of Greg Delanty's Collected Poems at White House

Dr. Eugene O Brien who launched the book.

Mayor Diarmuid Scully speaking at the White House

Limerick superior in poetry and rugby.

Mayor Diarmuid Scully speaking at the White House Poetry Revival last Wednesday on the occasion of the launch of Cork poet Greg Delanty’s collected poems,
jokingly observed that rugby and poetry were now the two acknowledged areas of superiority that Limerick enjoyed over Cork.

Praising the efforts of White House Poetry Revival organisers Barney Sheehan and Dominic Taylor for their tireless work in the promotion of poetry in Limerick he said that up to now that the city has merely been acknowledging these efforts but that he hoped to do something more in the future.

Welcoming Greg Delanty to Limerick and the White House he said that when you see Cork people coming to Limerick to launch books you know that there is something special happening.

Referring to his campaign to reclaim the limerick verse form for Limerick he said that the origin of the idea came about as a result of the German TV crew who visited Limerick last year to make a documentary on the origin of the limerick and based themselves at the White House. He hoped to announce the winner of his recent competition for limericks to adorn every street plaque in the city next month.

Mayor Scully is the first Mayor to attend a poetry event at the White House, in an official capacity, since the late Steve Coughlan famously announced when there in the 60’s that ‘he would make sure Limerick had culture even if he had to take the money out of the rates’.

Greg Delanty’s book ‘Collected Poems 1986 – 2006’ was officially launched by Dr. Eugene O Brien of Mary Immaculate College who said that Delanty was a poet of immense stature and even though the book was a collected work he expected much more from him in the future. He further added that the poems in the last couple of books in the collection were among the finest work he had ever read.

The launch was attended by a host of local poets and writers along with Kerry poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice and Kilkenny born poet Ciaran O Driscoll.

White House Poetry Revival Wed 15th March 2006

White House Poetry Revival
Wed 15th March 2006 9.00pm

Youe are invited to the special Limerick launch by Dr. Eugene O Brien of

'Collected Poems 1986 - 2006' by Greg Delanty,

at the White House Poetry Revival this Wednesday.

Also in attendance will be Mayor Diarmuid Scully.

Greg Delanty's Collected Poems 1986 - 2006 includes his six previous collections Cast in the Fire (1986), Southward (1992), American Wake (1995), The Hellbox (1998), The Blind Stitch (2001) The Ship of Birth (2003), and his most recent collection Aceldama, published here for the first time.

Greg Delanty’s Collected Poems reveals his resourcefulness and engaging wit. The poet explores common experiences - family life, love, friendship, the natural world and the political world - in unexpected ways. He weaves together the idioms of his native Cork with the language of modern America. The poems range over Ireland, the United States and India, drawing on their different inheritances. Delanty’s poetry is a sequence of metaphors, evoking the subtle interconnections of past and future, people and places.

'A true poet' - Christopher Ricks, The Guardian

Greg Delanty was born in Cork, Ireland in 1958, and now lives for most of the year in America, where he teaches at St Michael’s College, Vermont. He was awarded the Austin Clarke Centenary Poetry award in 1996 and won the National Poetry Competition in 1999.


As usual the reading is preceded by an open mic session in which anyone who wishes to read is invited to do so. Complementary finger food is provided and proceeding commence at 9.00 pm.

For further information contact Barney Sheehan at 086 8657494 or Dominic Taylor at 087 2996409 email whitehousepoets@eircom.net Website www.limerick.com/whitehousepoets Blog Http://whitehousepoets.blogspot.com

Poem Of The Week 'Graffiti tracks' by Ray Hitchings

Graffiti Tracks

The graffiti bridge sped past
As the darkened tunnel ends.
Graffiti spills and sound-bite slang;
Fuck you! Up the Revolution!
And Christ’s coming has begun son.
The treacherous weather wraps
Around the train: curling, sweeping;
Pelting the windows that are
Thick with condensation on the inside;
Clouded with rain on the distant outside
And another tunnel roars into my
Field of vision; windows turning jet-black,
Reflective gloss and I saw myself stare.
I fixate on my reflection.
The darkness of the outside contrasts
With the electric flickering fluorescence
Overhead, as moths fly a wayward path.
More graffiti; foul words expressively painted
In daubed pink, caustic yellows…
And Bart Simpson and a boy in a bubble
Flies balloons on those grotty walls too.
Iconic vision and lethargy send motioned
Angels cascading from starry-eyed skies.
More graffiti passes again and then soon
The train vanishes into the distant night,
Blurs to a faint dot and fades to infinity.


Ray Hitchings lives in Limerick. He has studied at the National college of Art and Design and University of Cambridge. Presently working as Lecturer.

White House Poetry Revival Wed 8th March 2006

White House Poetry Revival
Wed 8th March 2006 9.00pm

In association with Poetry Ireland the White House Poetry Revival continues this week with guest poet Kerry Hardie.

Kerry Hardie was born 1951 and grew up in Co Down, she now lives in Co. Kilkenny. Her publications include: Poetry –A Furious Place - Gallery Press, 1996; Cry for the Hot Belly - Gallery Press 2000; The Sky Didn’t Fall – Gallery Press, 2003. The Silence Came Close forthcoming, 2006. Novels: Hannie Bennet’s Winter Marriage - Harper Collins 2000, The Bird Woman Harper Collins, forthcoming, July 2006.

She has won many prizes and commendations, including the National Poetry Prize, The Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry, University of St Thomas, Minnesota 2005, and the Michael Hartnett Award [joint winner] 2005.

She has been awarded residencies in Portugal, Switzerland, Paris, Scotland, Spain. Reviews for the Boston Globe. Her work has been widely anthologised.

As usual the reading is preceded by an open mic session in which anyone who wishes to read is invited to do so. Complementary finger food is provided and proceeding commence at 9.00 pm.

For further information contact Barney Sheehan at 086 8657494 or Dominic Taylor at 087 2996409 email whitehousepoets@eircom.net Website http://www.limerick.com/whitehousepoets/ Blog http://www.whitehousepoets.blogger.com/

Poem Of The Week 'Would You Like To Be At Sea Tonight?' by Peter Mc Closkey

Would You Like To Be At Sea Tonight?

Monday, November 07, 2005, WSW F9,
backing south west to south and moderating F6 or 7 later


Would you like to be at
sea tonight?

It is in the extreme that
I feel safe,
Tossed, turned and thrown – on watch.
There is that silent unity – visible on the swell
Of mast and aspect light.

Here in the leaf tossed streets of
The city,
Is that what you prefer?
To be a lost and lonely soul
On a washed up concrete shore.

The lads are out there – John and Mick
Bearing into it at six knots
The screams are too loud for talk
So, Mick takes the wheel
Pulling on a fag.

You probably think they’re mad
Or hard, don’t you?
We are in between, you and me,
Uncertain in our certainty
I’m not safe, are you?

Peter Mc Closkey lives in Moveen, near Kilkee, Co. Clare. He is originally from the Ennis Road, Limerick. Having previously worked in sales, as a represantative covering the western seaboard, and most recently as a commercial fisherman, he is now a full time mature student at Mary Immaculate College In Limerick, studying for a BA in Liberal Arts. He has one book of prose published and has also contributed to Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1. His short story, The Walking Machine, was published in the RTE collection 2003 / 2004. He is 36 years old.