Paula Meehan reads her poems and talks of her Irish childhood
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- Опубликовано: 14 мар 2012
- Irish poet and playwright Paula Meehan speaks with poet Michael Collier about her inner city Dublin childhood, her education, her poetry and her work in women's prisons. Meehan reads "My Father Perceived as a Vision of St. Francis," "The Ghost of my Mother Comforts Me," and "Dharmakaya." Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's poet laureate, says: "Paula Meehan is that rare and precious thing, a vocational poet of courage and integrity." Collier and Meehan talk about the change in her poetry in her then-newest book, "Pillow Talk."
For more information about "The Writing Life" and HoCoPoLitSo (the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society), visit www.hocopolitso.org.
I feel so lucky that there are so many long conversations with Paula Meehan like this uploaded here on RUclips. It’s so satisfying to listen to her speak.. so eloquent, so knowledgeable and wise, and I just love her North Dublin accent.
So glad I found this thanks ❤
Wonderful Paula Meehan. How lovely it is to hear someone who can articulate in such an interesting way in a world of mono-syllables .. Good for her…may she long continue to write.
Enjoyed very much your poems and unique word choices that had an emotional impact and kept me engaged throughout.
I, too, am a poet ( and also a fiction story writer which I’ll elaborate shortly and post a story dealing with racial injustice.. be sure to watch as it has an inspirational heartwarming ending) but for now let me say I write mostly Japanese format poems i.e. haiku , senryu, tanka/kyoka, haibun etc. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a Tanka and a haiku dedicated to Matshuo Bashō’s frog with added insightful commentary by the late AHA founder and poet Jane Reichhold who considered my haiku among her 10 favorite haiku of all time! What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem with Jane Reichhold’s insightful commentary:
Bashō’s frog
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather
daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of the sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us
that we are ripples and our lives ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
Now the tanka:
returning home from
a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear paint on my face
and morph into art.
~~
"The Ghost of My Mother Comforts Me." Fabulous!!
Thank you for posting. I'm doing a Literature paper examining the role of the sovereignty goddess in contemporary Irish poets. Comparing the male poet's interpretation with the female poet's interpretation. I'm becoming familiar with Meehan.
+Edee Bee Dear Edee Bee, That's a wonderful topic, and I'm sure Meehan will play a central role. You might benefit from watching our program on Eavan Boland, who is also a contemporary female Irish poet. Good luck on your paper.
Wanted to pull my ears and eyelids off. Thanks 👍
Well, she made you feel something, I guess!
Mscentrum04 Met her in a '89 EWU workshop, a Guest Reader..My mentor, the fabulous Jim McCauley's friend.Still is wonderful!! I forgot how great she was & is!!!!
The sting of her hand, across my face, in one of our wars.
Thanks t mac, for quoting Paula's lines from "The Pattern." We appreciate you watching, and being so well-read!
I understand this is a literary program. I understand that requires a conversation, a certain dissection. Still, I carry this thing in my heart that started in high school: sometimes a poem is read, a piece is played, a painting revealed when the most appropriate response is to just be quiet, be grateful, stand in awe. It seems the "smart people" don't know when to talk, or when to stop.