Loads of Poetry Talk
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Apologies for being a day late. During the fine weather, I took myself off for a cliff walk and notionsy sandwiches. I know you're all dying of withdrawal, so here's your fix.
Epic Reading in the Japanese Gardens
Twas pure mental in the Japanese Gardens on Saturday in the nicest possible way. Forty people were down to read. They won't all turn up, I thought. They're artists, after all. Sure enough, some didn't, but they were soon replaced by rebellious souls who hadn't registered. In the end, a whopping 41 people read their poems, stories and haiku, by my reckoning. And 10 people showcased their writers' groups.
Here's a crowd pic of writers sitting under cream canopies in the Gardens. You can see me at the back of the pic, wearing a red and white shirt with a vaguely Japanese design and my trusty grey storytelling hat.
My co-MC Mary Howlett brought dignity, order and class to proceedings. I cracked jokes. For forty-five solid minutes, rain thundered onto the canopies thoughtfully provided by the Japanese Gardens staff. And we didn't have to wait until sunset to finish – we were out the door by five o'clock. A mighty gathering, over for another year.
Eavan Boland Award
There were piles of poets at the Gathering last week, and some of them may be interested in the Eavan Boland Award, named after the late poet Eavan Boland. It's a bursary for mid-career Irish poets and early-career UK poets, supported by Poetry Ireland.
UK poets will win a month's residency at the School of English in Trinity College in November 2025 and Irish poets will win a month's residency at the Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester. You'll find more information about the residency here.
Celebrant Writing Workshop
My writing workshop for celebrants for Celebrant Training Ireland is just nine days away and I'm looking forward to it. Working with celebrants is a little like working with entrepreneurs – they're butterflies. Moving quickly from activity to activity works well with them. They're also very chatty, so even when they finish more quickly than I expect, the chat fills the gaps in time.
WordNerd: Yeaning
The WordNerd came across a wonderfully poetic word, yeaning, which is the word used when a sheep gives birth to a lamb. Even though I'm a vet's daughter, I never came across this word before.
Yeaning comes from the Middle English yenen via Old English *geēanian, and is considered to be related to the Latin word agnus, for lamb. I also love the idea that if you add an R to this word, it becomes yearning.
And finally… I note that Pat Barker, author of the Regeneration Trilogy of searing World War One novels, has been given a damehood. It's great to see such a high level of recognition for a novelist and for literature.