Empire!

Empire!

With thanks to Google Images.

Jeremy Paxman on a recent episode of the BBC series on "Empire" reflecting on what it is or was that makes for greatness recited a few lines from Henry Newbolt's Vitai Lampada a poem that extols the virtue of doing the right thing or "playing the game" which in this particular had some mix of christian zeal, public school values and  the taking up of the white man's burden, whatever that might be, or however misguided. Profit would surely follow. I have no idea what the modern equivalent might be but maybe something on price as opposed to anything of value. Someone once said that when Britain was great the book keepers were out the back but now they haunt our every move. Some arithmetic where the sum is always smaller than the parts and themselves the exception  A poem, I don't know.. Yeats 1913, or maybe I'll go off and listen to Jeff Buckley "A Satisfied Mind".

The Meath Writers' Circle (3) Video March 2012

Paul Martin.

Paul Martin has been a member of the Writers' Circle for a number of years now and is I believe working on a collection of poems to be published later this year. This one is called "The Lake at Night" and is the latest to be posted here. Others include "Solace, No Redemption Here, The Buddha and Me, Greed, and there may be others!! Always worth a listen. 

Friendship!!

A few people worth making friends with!
With thanks to google images.

Friendship

 Given the week that's in it Here's an excerpt from an interesting email I received on friendship, or what goes around comes around!!

Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like nobody's watching
Sing like nobody's listening
And live like it's Heaven on Earth.

And that St Patrick's week gone for another year!

Oh and you can make a wish now!

The gael by Jenny O' Connor

Something for St Patrick's Day this is Jenny O' Connor playing Dougie MacLean's "The Gael" which most of you will remember from The Last of the Mochicans with Daniel Day Lewis racing through the woods. There are as many versions of this as there are stars in the sky but this one is pretty special. Beautiful girl. The old black and white film of the above wasn't bad either though I think there were a number of them, anyway the one where Chingachgook says "Some trails cross many times, some only once...". Enjoy the video and with thanks to youtube and whoever posted. If it loads slow just let it!

The Meath Writers' Circle (2) Video March 2012

Michael Shiels

If you click over on the "Canadian Poets Against War"  website you can read Michael Sheils who is one of  the featured poets there for his contribution "Try Talking" an anti-war poem. Michael is a long time member of the Meath Writers' Circle and is probably best known for his book of memoirs "Short Trousers Days in Navan" which was published in November 2005. Working on another at the moment I believe but no info available going to press so will have to wait and see. Above he reads "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae which I recorded last November and there are a number of other videos of Michael further back which are worth a look. Click on "sherifffromnavan" site for link to "Canadian Poets".   

The Golden Pen Poetry and Short Story Competition

The Golden Pen.

Once upon a time there seemed to be any number of writing competitions around this time of year but now they   pass for few or far between or maybe they just don't advertise themselves anymore. Anyway this one seems to have  survived the recession and has a closing date of April the 1st looming. The entry fee is €5 Euro for each item, poem or short story with a max of seventy lines for poetry and 2000 words for short stories. This is a contest in which a lot of local writers have been successful and if I remember right Gerry Willis won it a number of years back. I remember getting a certificate in it myself and it arrived in a nice package which included the festival magazine which I put in a safe place, the certificate I still have. I didn't make it down at the time but map to the right if you should happen to find yourself in that neck of the woods or lucky enough to pick up a prize. The address to send your entries to is,

The Golden Pen

Gurteen

Ballinasloe

County Galway

Ireland.

Info from Poetry Ireland. Also info up at Emerging Writer and Stammering Poet Blogsites. Links to the right!   

The Meath Writers' Circle (1) Video March 2012

Eugene Kane

Joe Dolan was one of Ireland's best known entertainers and just about everyone would have their own particular or fond memory. From his early days with The Drifters Showband until his death in December 2007 he was drawing huge crowds wherever he played. After his performance on Top of The Pops in the late sixties you literally had to be there to believe it. When he played Beechmount in Navan it was nearly impossible to cross the floor and the women, of the kind they don't make anymore, were storming the stage.. As fast as they climbed up one side, Ben was "helping" them off again. Joe kept singing. According to Wikipedia  "Make Me An Island" went to No1 in 14 countries and that was just one of his many hits. I think he was the first western pop star ever to tour Russia. A singer with a beautiful voice and from a time when there was plenty of competition Joe was the real thing.. Eugene Kane here recounts his own memories and tribute to the late and great!. Again apologies for the bad light on the video! 

The Meath Writers' Circle/ March 2012

Meeting: March 2012.

Paul Martin  Michael Sheils and Willie G. Hodgins. 

Crowd Scene

A crowd of about twelve or thirteen turned out last Thursday night for the monthly meeting of The Meath Writers' Circle, which left for a few empty seats. Everyone managed to read a poem or two or even a short story, which were commented on, or even frowned upon on the odd occasion they managed to stray off into the ether, a not altogether unpleasant experience given the space time continuum and the tendency toward the ordinary. But the night creeps up and before you know it the commemorative milestones and the executions and the upcoming referendum and the infirmities following on from the Viking incursion not to mention the hospital cases and the public houses and it was half past ten and had you no home to go to? Who writes this!       

An interesting night.