The theme was ‘Arrival & Departure’ at this Seven Towers reading in Chapters Bookstore in Parnell Street in Dublin. Karl Parkinson set things going with that ‘Mountjoy Jail’  poem of his which features earthy descriptions of a chap being released from the clink, a fellow you would NOT like to meet up a dark alleyway. His recent New York tour (… tour. Like that, Karl?) inspired his ‘New York Fragment‘ in which the line ‘..my Brooklyn Lager tastes like any other lager…’ just about sums up the NY hype. Great stuff, as always.

Bernie O’Reillygave some homely poems (to settle us down after Karl), one called

”Wisconsin’ and another in memory of that late great Dublin ‘character’ The Diceman. Also one about a floating candle she put some effort into making and then… it just sailed away from her! … That’s life, Bernie. Steve Conway read his very sensual ‘ballon story’ ‘Bristol Awakening’ and Bob Shakeshaft gave poems entitled ‘Dying Embers’, ‘Adam’s Soil’ and from the Census anthology ‘It Is Autumn Full’, a very evocative, pastoral piece. Oran Ryan, ever modest, didn’t bring anything but borrowed Bob’s Census to read his ‘1947 Prelininary Design for a Universe Circling Spaceship’ an enigmatic journey into a future world.

I tried out my latest ‘The Canals of Mars’ plus‘The Coming Back’

and (another new) ‘Railway Crossing’. I found a few things in the last-named which need tightening-up. All in all a very enjoyable session, MC’d with the usual aplomb by Sarah Lundberg. The next themed reading will be on Thursday Sept 15 at 6.30 on the subject of ‘Animals’. Come along and join the fun.