Written in Moleskine Notebook on Saturday 19 May in Falls Hotel, Ennistymon during performance by poet at the Dylan Thomas Weekend Festival. The poem was written in direct response to the energy, rhythm & magic of an Irish bardic poet:
__________________________________________________________
With his tie so fine,
his beard so wild,
a suit picked out with fire
With those feet so sunk
and cufflinks shined,
his locks fertilised with lyre.
With his tale so bright
and rythm alight,
the bard cut loose with ire.
No deeper son than Donal
No steeper rock did stand
No stream ran through the room
Like sperm that made it home.
Ó Siodhacháin the voice
called all rise up, rejoice:
the Republic will live again,
Merryman and Scott in twain.
The rutting stag ran riot,
Victoria regained her tribe
vernacular on scapular
Sliamh Luachra conqueror.
Arise you poest of the land,
take hand, take eye,
take heart.
Lay down your paper,
lay down your guides,
lay down your soul beside.
'Tis time for fire
to pluck that lyre,
celebrate that ire.
#bard #DonalOSiodhachain #DylanThomasFestival #ennistymon #FallsHotel #gift #Irish #live #Moleskine #PaulOMahony #performance #poet #rhythm #tradition #InHonour
__________________________________________________________
With his tie so fine,
his beard so wild,
a suit picked out with fire
With those feet so sunk
and cufflinks shined,
his locks fertilised with lyre.
With his tale so bright
and rythm alight,
the bard cut loose with ire.
No deeper son than Donal
No steeper rock did stand
No stream ran through the room
Like sperm that made it home.
Ó Siodhacháin the voice
called all rise up, rejoice:
the Republic will live again,
Merryman and Scott in twain.
The rutting stag ran riot,
Victoria regained her tribe
vernacular on scapular
Sliamh Luachra conqueror.
Arise you poest of the land,
take hand, take eye,
take heart.
Lay down your paper,
lay down your guides,
lay down your soul beside.
'Tis time for fire
to pluck that lyre,
celebrate that ire.
#bard #DonalOSiodhachain #DylanThomasFestival #ennistymon #FallsHotel #gift #Irish #live #Moleskine #PaulOMahony #performance #poet #rhythm #tradition #InHonour
about 1 year ago, Sallybrook, County Cork, Ireland
I wanted to tell Donald a very large and elaborate thank you, but I really mustn't forget to say a simple THANK YOU first! I am playing the poem to my students today. I am eager to see my students' reactions... I was astounded by the elaborate answer to my question, and I loved it. Thank you @omaniblog, and a huge THANK YOU to Donal O'Siodhachain! I have just seen another poem, this time obviously a funny poem by him on your timeline @omaniblog ... Have a splendid day both of you!
dzakyem 12 months ago
Hi, Greetings from Ireland !
In regards to Paul's poem, here is some background and context as I am the poet that he composed the poem for. I hope that you will find it
of some assistance.
In Gaelic Culture there are five traditional performed arts, poetry,
music, storytelling, song and dance ( listed in order of importance ).
Traditional poetry is performed as a singer would a song, it is very
much centered on the power of the declaimed and proclaimed word, a
conventional poetry reading is much constrained and a very pale
comparison.
Some years back I was All Ireland Champion Poet For Live Performance Poetry and I have been one of the few Celtic poets who have taken this traditional style of poetry into mainstream poetry and got an audience for it there.
I have also won several awards for poems in mainstream poetry with poems that could equally well be accepted for performance
in Traditional poetry circles. In short it would seem that I have
succeeded in merging both Traditional and Mainstream poetry in a way
acceptable to both Art Forms.
The great Sir Walter Scott also did this towards the end of the 1700's
His great service to the evolving English Language was that he was
able to take themes, rhymes and rhythms from the Gaelic Language and use these as they would have been used in Gaelic poetry in particular, but in the English language. In doing so he considerably enriched, cross fertilizes and enhanced the poetic expressive capacity of the English language of 200 years ago.
In my lecture I covered these areas and theme of Gaelic Ethos and
structures into English using Scott as among the first and finest
example.
Among the principle themes of Celtic Poetry honored above all
are 'The deed of 'Gaisce' ( bravery, valor, courage etc) Romance and
'Other World', that to do with the spirit, unseen but never the less
ever present and always felt world, of which the 'fair world' is a
constituent and significant part.
Scott's poem that I performed has the deed of bravery : sailors are
pleaded with and against their better judgment, carry a young woman
home across a stretch of ocean between two headlands in a storm. It
has romance : the young woman is in love with a Lord and is fearful he
will take up with some other young woman at her parents castle ball if
she is not there to get and keep him. It has tragedy : the ship and
all in it are lost including the young woman. It has the weird,
supernatural element in that on the death of the princess, the near
spiritual realm are convulsed and these disturbances manifest in the
physical world.
It is a very powerful, emotive poem and one which when performed by a Bardic poet in the traditional way, is capable of also projecting and
releasing all the emotion encapsulated in the poem in a way that say
Wagner can do with a powerful piece of music.
I know Paul for some years now, he has both a love for and an
appreciation of this kind of poetry.
He was one of those who responded to the emotion and the rhythms of Scott as I was performing the poem and as to the poem that he composed, while my performance is the subject matter, it is really an articulation of the emotions invoke in him by that fine poet Sir Walter Scott of two hundred years ago.
Thank you for your interest and response : teaching is a noble
profession and I hope that you will find this useful to you. Following
are two of Scott's poems, first the one Paul responded to and the
other chosen for its pulse beat. The pulse beat is in fact that of a
rutting stag, a copulating man etc and for a Celtic ethos that
celebrated life and procreation, this was Divine energy manifesting
and the very act of creation itself manafesting in the material world.
This pulse beat, because of this, is frequently encountered in Gaelic
poetry, in poetry translated from the Gaelic and in the English
Language having migrated or been imported from the Gaelic. ( If
you do not already know, 'poem hunter' is a very useful utility for
poem locating in the English Language)
Slan is beannacht, ( health and a blessing) Donal O'Siodhachain. (
Daniel Sheehan)
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rosabelle/comments.asp
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lochinvar/
omaniblog 12 months ago
dzakyem - your words are wonderful - thank you very much. Donal has send you a reply...
omaniblog about 1 year ago
erratum: tails
dzakyem about 1 year ago
What a strength and vitality! In your voice and the poem! You must have been moved indeed that while you were listening to the bard younstarted writing! I humbly tried to transcribe your poem; I could try and play it to students... Could you tell me if I made transcription mistakes? Punctuation and and paragraphing are certainly not adequate at all... By the way, where and when (date) did you write it? I love what you do and while on holiday in Paris for three days I started reading your "33 cantos"; i have already been improving my English to start and feel your epos!...
With his tie so fine,
his beard so wild,
A suit picked out with fire!
With those feet so sunk
And cufflinks shined,
His locks fertilised with lyre!
With his tail so bright
And rythm alight
The bard cut loose with ire!
No deeper sun than Donal
No steeper rock did stand!
No stream ran through the room
Like sperm that made it home.
O'Siahadchain the voice
Called all rise up, rejoice!
There are public who live again,
Merryman and Scot entwain.
The rutting stag ran riot,
Victoria regained her tribe.
Vernacular and scapular
"Sleeve Lucra" conqueror!
Arise you poet of the land!
Take heed, take eye, take heart!
Lay down your paper
Lay down your guides
Lay down your soul beside!
T'is time for fire
To pluck that lyre
Celebrate that ire!
dzakyem about 1 year ago