An Tobar/Poetry for Pleasure!

An Tobar/Poetry for Pleasure!

An Tobar/Google Images

Last night's meeting of the Poetry for Pleasure group was chaired by Danny Cusack and included readings of some fine poems by authors such as W.B.Yeats, Austin Clarke, Patrick Pearse, Wendel Berry, Longfellow, Arthur Symons, Radclyffe Hall, Matthias Claudius and one or two local poets. The theme was on nature and sowing and opened with a poem by Thomas Hardy called "The Darkling Thrush" which was written on the last day of the nineteenth century. I remember reading it many years ago in a book by Karen Armstrong (A History of God) where she remarked on, " the growing blankness where God once existed in the human consciousness" and noted that, "one of the first people to express this dry desolation - quite different from the heroic atheism of Neitzsche - was Thomas Hardy", in his poem The Darkling Thrush. Another highlight of the night was Sean Reilly's reading of Myra Lalor's poem "Do You Remember". Myra was a member of both The Meath Writers Circle and the Navan Writers and her poetry was published in several journals including Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times and The New York Times. The theme of next month's meeting is "Easter" and the meeting is on Tuesday the 18th of April at 7.30 pm.