Category: Various
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A Work for Poets
To have carved on the days of our vanity
A sun
A star
A cornstalk
Also a few marks
From an ancient forgotten time
A child may read
That not far from the stone
A well
Might open for wayfarers
Here is a work for poets—
Carve the runes
Then be content with silence.
Lux Perpetua.
A star for a cradle
Sun for plough and net
A fire for old stories
A candle for the dead.Lux perpetua
By such glimmers we seek you.I have two reading recommendations this sunny cold morning in Dublin, Interrogation of Silence, The writings of George Mackay Brown, Rowena and Brian Murray. Publ. John Murray (2004). and The Absence of Myth by Georges Bataille Publ. Version (1994/2006).
I am sad to hear the John Hurst, proprietor of Rare and Interesting Books in Westport died this past weekend, he always got the exact book that I sought and I had put him alongside Charlie Byrne’s In Galway for his excellent collection of books. Indeed I had been re-reading a certain book this weekend that I had bought from him in the last years, RIP. For those readers interested in George Mackay Brown, I include here the GMB website, along with a link to a short Poethead post on John’s lovely bookshop in Mayo.
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from Skywriting
by Dennis O Driscoll
Reiterating whatever claim it makes,
A sotto voce repetition, rain plays out
a reverie-inducing music on the glass
harmonica of the kitchen’s window pane.
But peeling open the back door
for a rain check, you hear the liquid
swishing grow insistent as a whip;
sibiliant drips insinuate their way
between tightly packed leaves which,
gorging on these waters , never
quite reach saturation point.
hard to imagine that sweetness
and light might yet triumph,
a freshly perfumed day resurface,
put on airs of mellowness,
a rose-tinted sun assume the contours
of a mountain range, your gable wall.by Dennis O Driscoll
‘Reality Check’ , by Dennis O Driscoll Dennis O Driscoll , ‘Reality Check’. Publ Anvil Press 2007.
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In 2009 the Archives of Cologne collapsed , Speigel English reported it as ‘History in Ruins, Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians‘. It always interests me as a sometime collector of letters, books and such ephemera that Governments often do not prioritise our history in a manner that will benefit future students of culture and politics.
Yesterday morning there were reports of an ongoing dispute between French Archivists and the Government of Nicholas Sarkozy , or rather , more specifically Nicholas Sarkozy’s Legacy Museum Project, which is centred in the National Archives in Paris :
” It’s one of the grandest palaces in central Paris, housing treasured national documents from Napoleon’s will to the rules of tennis. But behind a makeshift barricade of box-files and banners, staff are camping out in sleeping bags, as France’s National Archives become the frontline in the biggest cultural revolt of Nicolas Sarkozy‘s leadership.
Historians are rising up against the president’s grandiose plans to immortalise himself by founding a national history museum in his own image. Just as François Mitterrand built the Louvre pyramid and Georges Pompidou lent his name to the landmark modern art museum, Sarkozy is searching for his own cultural legacy. But his planned museum, with its emphasis on “national identity”, has been attacked by academics as a dangerous, nationalistic attempt to pervert history for his own ideological purposes.”
(Guardian report 10/11/2010)
The questions really have to be grounded in how Governments see their role in preserving the past ?
(i). Do they protect the buildings which house archives from problems such as runaway development and gentrification ?
(ii). Are there adequate disaster management plans in place that are planned and strategised at governmental /departmental levels ?
(iii). Is Governmental funding for the provision of adequate storage and climate-control infrastructure a priority in terms of paper/data archival storage ?
In terms of good news today , UCD celebrates the launch of the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive ( IVRLA ). I am adding in a paragraph about the launch and a link to the Press release:
” The Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) digital repository draws on UCD’s extensive archival resources, allowing this material to be accessed in a digitised format from a single virtual location. The IVRLA presents 32 curated collections as well as a series of 17 research projects which demonstrate the research potential of this major digital repository.”
( from Library.ie)
There are ongoing problems with our National Library storage , including its dependence on Dáil Éireann for heat, but its good to see that resources and archive services are provided for in UCD. Visits by staff from the British library and skill-sharing in disaster-management form part of the NL’s policy here. I hope to update on the Archives of Cologne, the French National Archives dispute and digitizing Archival resources in a later post and will link further in the comments section.
A Renaissance for Literary Magazines, from the Guardian: adding a Guardian Books RSS Feed.
Note : I have added an RSS feed link to Guardian Books into the central column beneath this post, there is a very interesting report therein on how Tech advances a Literary Magazine Renaissance, which should be of interest to publishers, writers and readers. I am linking it here.
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Mhotaigh an scamallán an teas
trína chlúmh scáinte,
is scáil gréine is scáth faoi seach
sa duilliúr seimh,
is siosarnach ghaoithe sa ghiolcach,
is ceol srutháin faoi.
Rith driuch fionnadh tríd
-bhí rud deoranta sa nead leis !
Thar dhuibheagán an spáis
is dhiamhair na gcianta
thainig an treoir.
Trí dhamhna na réaltaí
tríd aigéad dí- ocsairibeanúicléasach,
ó aigne an Dúilimh,
scairt an dúchas.
Dhronn se a dhroim íogair, cigilteach
gur ardaigh an rud deoranta
that bhéal neide arnach.
Plab!
ón gcoill chraobhach
thainig guth a Mháthar
mar a bheadh sí ag sclogáil gháire,
agus glao na gcuach fireann ina diaidh.
Shoiprigh se é féin sa nead.
Is chonaic an Dúileamh
corp an ghealbhain
ag imeacht le sruth.An tÉan Cuaiche le Máire Nic Mhaoláin
A brief note on the Introductory to this book, which though published in 1986 had some interesting figures on the inclusion of Ulster Irish Poems in Publications and school curricula (1986) .
“Ni théann líon os chionn 10% de líon iomlán na bhfilí i gcas ar bith a phleann an nuafhilíocht. is Lú ná 3% de na filí gus de na dánta atá i gceist i Díolaim Filíochta don Ardtestiméireacht, eagrán oifigiúil DR C. Uí Ghóilidhe, 10% de na filí i Nuabhéarsaíocht 1939-1949 Uí Thuama, meán de 8% i dtrí imleabhar Nuafhilí 1942-1978 Uí Chéileachair agus 6% ag O Brien ina Dhuanaire Nuafhiliochta . Is mo ná 35% de dhaonra na tíre agus de dhaonra na Gaelteachta atá sa chuige. Níl staidreamh ann do chumas ná d’úsaid na teanga.” Réamhrá : Filíocht Uladh 1960-1985, Ó Dúill.
(I put in the comments because they are related to the post ” An Duanaire, Poems of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900″.)
I misplaced my copy of *CIC Cathal O Searcaigh today, meaning it worked its way to the back of some bookcase, so I decided to read his poems in the Filíocht Uladh , along with some Máire Nic Mhaoláin. So , after a longish day, in which some amount of fruit preserving and cookery classes occurred in lieu of an afternoon nap- I decided to put the Nic Mhaoláin onsite and save the Ó Searcaigh Dídean for another occasion (like when we get the summer electric storms!)
My translation skills btw are appalling, I can read Ó Searcaigh as if it was in English but have trouble with the nuts and bolts of Nic Mhaoláin, especially this word dí-oscairibeanúicleasach .
- CIC = Cló Iar-Chonnacht
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Abandoned Graveyard : The Blasphemer’s Banquet, Part the IV’
” Where some of Bradford’s past already lies
life flowers in these already bright affirming eyes,
though her forehead rests on some old grave
she thinks that time stays still, and never flies.It won’t be long before she knows
that everything vanishes with the rose
and then she’ll either love life more because it’s fleeting
or hate the flower and life because it goes”from : The Shadow of Hiroshima and Other Film/ Poems, FF, 1995. By Tony Harrison (0ne of a series).
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have been lobbying and releasing for quite a period on the Google Book Settlement (GBS).
I have carried their links on a number of sites regarding the oft-neglected issue of Consumer data privacy in relation to the GBS.Today, so, I am carrying a link to their latest information and to their site, for those who are interested in the issue of privacy and digitisation.
Here’s the Checklist (in brief, full version at link):
1). Does your ebook/service tool/etc protect your privacy?
2).Does it tell you what it is doing?
3).What happens to additions of books you buy, (commentaries/annotations/highlights)?
4).Do you own your book or just rent or licence it?
5).Is it censorship-resistant?
Number 5 interests me mostly, having experienced some degree of censorship myself, thus a simple enough question? :
We live in an era where Defamation laws (UK/Ireland) are preponderant, (Blasphemy in Ireland), if a book or licenced edition eBook were to fall foul of these laws, has our government the right to stymie /trace/track our reading ?
It may seem a silly question but as can be seen in many countries, words piss off governments and even giants like Google fall foul of the censors. I mean if everything were in data banks who gets to snip and clip at an advisory level?
The article is here:
EFF ‘Digital Books and your Rights’
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I ransack her room. Loot and pillage.
I root in her trunk. Crack open
the tightly sprung boxes of satin
and plush. Pierce my breast with her butterflybrooch. I pose in her hats,
French berets, mantillas of lace,
the veil that falls over her face,
the boa she wraps round her neck.I try on her shoes. Her slippers
are mules. I can’t walk in her callipered
boots. I break into her wardrobe.
Hands grope in the dark. Faded bats,like umbrellas, are humming inside.
Stoles of fox-fur and mink: tiny claws,
precise nails. Lips clamped in the rictus
of death. I’m hot on the scentof oestrus, umbilicus, afterbirth,
eau-de-cologne, I fling myself
down on the bed that she made
of dirt from the Catacombs, bloodof the saints. Under the counterpane,
nettles, goose-feathers, a torc.from : The New Irish Poets, edited by Selina Guinness Bloodaxe 2004.
The Poems of Dorothy Molloy was launched in November 2019 (Faber & Faber)
I remember well those fox-furs, my own mother was bequeathed a pair and I too delved into the huge old nana wardrobe, bringing out the fur stoles complete with little curled feet and a golden chain effect that operated as a clasp. The wardrobe revelation is part of most girls’ growing. In the meantime, there is a small piece on the trousseau, inheritance and the Island Women on the blog. I quite remember being unable to zip the zipper of my mother’s wedding dress confection onto me at twelve, nor indeed being able to squeeze my toes into the minute satin winkle-pickers that she wore for her wedding day!
EDIT : 25/11/2010, this is a Reblog of a piece written to mark the 16 day Campaign to eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls.
Mary Lavin’s Island Women
International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls 2010
Chris Murray 