Invitation to virtual poetry reading featuring Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin - Saturday, December 16

[Larry Robinson]

You are cordially invited to join us for a virtual poetry reading featuring Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin 

Saturday, December 16
from 10:00 to 10:30 AM PDT

There is no need to pre-register; just click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85828413513?pwd=RzNJRm1DemtLZzNBc2FyYWpzeG5OZz09



I learned to love my own voice, 
making a friend of it, fashioning
a fountain pen to master
the phantom language

– excerpt from 'Early Music' by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin


Mícheál ‘Moley’ Ó Súilleabháin is a renowned singer, poet, and speaker from Limerick, Ireland. His artistic identity lives on the threshold between things. He is a master of several worlds of music and poetic performance. His way in the world exists between laughter and poignancy. 

His first book of poetry, Early Music, is published on David Whyte's Many Rivers Press (Seattle). It is a collection that delves into his experience of Irish mythology, music, landscape and spirituality. He has been a poetic apprentice of sorts to David over the past 15 years and is deeply influenced by his work. He will recited his own poetry and some of the great pieces of the Irish poetic canon. 

Mícheál also applies his artistry creating experiences in Ireland each summer called Turas d'Anam (Journey of Your Soul), where he works with his brother, Owen, and their mother, Nóirín Ní Riain. Turas d’Anam <http://www.turasdanam.com/> 


Lough Gur / Plunged Through


Two lads cutting rushes 
plunged their sickle through it. 
The hollow thud of bronze unearthed 
ceremonial shield and sun sign, offering
to the Goddess Áine,
who lives beneath Lough Gur, 
watching the surface.


My grandmother conceived by this shore 
and my mother was born. But before that, 
Paddy and Nora skated on the frozen lough
only for Nora to plunge through, 
pulled up by the hair by my grandfather 
after she had already given up.

Nora maintained she felt the Goddess Áine, 
dragging her down to her depths.
An enticing urge.
I can feel my grandmother sinking in this lake, letting go 
of her young love and her future family, and feeling 
that it could be good to leave this world. 
Confident in her saviour.

This prehistoric space, where each undulation is a hoard, 
and treasure lies among the rushes once a holy offering.
Lough Gur beneath Knockaney, Lough Gur beneath Knockadoon 
that birthed my mother, 
and spared hers.

	- Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin







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