As a writer, musician, arts manager and academic, I hope that 'Things Being Various' will engage with the world of ideas in the realms of poetry, music, the arts and English/History/Irish Studies. The title is extracted from: 'the drunkenness of things being various' - the eighth line from the poem, 'Snow' by one of my favourite poets, Louis MacNiece. (See full poem below). In the true spirit of 'things being various' my aim here is to celebrate heterogeneity. I'm currently working on my second poetry collection - my first, No Vague Utopia, was published by Ainnir in 2003 and is reviewed by 'The Stinging Fly' journal here I'm also working on a number of academic articles on aspects of Irish cultural history and music. For example, I have an article in Visual, Material and Print Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Four Courts Press) - see here Other interests include digital humanities, contemporary music and club culture, arts and cultural policy, design, the Irish language, fashion, architecture, humour, parenting, food and many other things, so this blog will also be a forum for musings - light-hearted and serious - on a wide range of subjects.
Snow
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes–
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of your hands–
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
Louis MacNiece
No comments:
Post a Comment