*Press Release*
Poetry Day Ireland 2022
Thursday 28 April
This year’s theme is ‘Written in the Stars’.
Each year Poetry Day Ireland invites everyone to experience, share and enjoy poetry in all its forms. Whether you share a poem, read a poem, or programme your own event on the day, everyone is invited to join in and celebrate in your own way. Now in its eighth year, this day-long celebration of the crafted word, spoken and written, is presented by Poetry Ireland in partnership with poetry enthusiasts the length and breadth of the island of Ireland.
This year's Poetry Day Ireland takes place on Thursday 28 April and the 2022 theme is ‘Written in the Stars’.
Do the stars determine our destiny? Or are they indifferent observers as we attempt to navigate our place in the cosmos by their ancient light? On Poetry Day Ireland, share your poems of prophecy and prediction or, in contrast, your poems questioning the idea that we can ever know what’s coming down the line.
There will be a number of exciting events taking place across Cork, including:
Poetry in the Park, presented by Cork City Council Libraries
Thursday 28 April, all day
Poetry in the Park was launched for Poetry Day Ireland 2021 in three parks around Cork City. This COVID-inspired project captured the imagination of all walking in their local areas during a time of restricted movement by bringing poetry into public spaces to a potential audience of 2.1 million. Supported by Creative Ireland, Poetry in the Park will extend to include six parks on Poetry Ireland Day 2022 increasing the audience to 3 million people who visit the parks. Poetry in the Park includes Clogheenmilcon Walkway, Gerry O’Sullivan Park, The Marina, Fitzgerald's Park, Tramore Valley Park and Ballincollig Regional Park
Free
These parks include the north and southside of the city, the city centre and the ‘new’ city area. The programme brings poetry to people in their everyday lives, creating a sense of community, awareness and celebration of the vibrant literary life of Cork City.
Established and award winning poets are placed alongside emerging poets, young poets and intercultural voices celebrating the diversity of life and literature in the city.
Written in the Stars, presented by West Cork Literary Society
Thursday 28 April, 7.30pm
MacCarthy's Bar, The Square, Castletownbere, Co Cork.
Tickets: Free
Writers are invited to share and discuss poems of their own that reflect this year’s Poetry Day Ireland theme ‘Written in the Stars’ for this Poetry Day Ireland event.
Painting Poetry Exhibition, by poet and artist Steph Sheahan
Thursday 28 April, 6.30-9pm
4 Tuckey Street, Cork City
Tickets: Free
Painting Poetry Exhibition by poet and artist Steph Sheahan. A colourful showcase and graphic interpretation of a collection of Steph’s poetry through painting.
Open Mic presented by 49, North Street
Thursday 28 April, 11am - 1pm
49, North Street, P81 Y433 Skibbereen
Tickets: Free
49, North Street, a creative mental health hub, will run an Open Mic event on Poetry Day Ireland to celebrate (the love of) poetry.
One of the offerings to visitors – apart from tea, coffee, nibbles – will be a 10-card Menu of Poems to take home. Rita Ann Higgins (formerly the People’s Pandemic Poet Laureate) curated the poems.
She wrote, "Poetry can be the balm we need in challenging times. Poems can be unlikely allies, whether it’s a poem of the absurd or the commonplace or a poem about the joy of a newborn."
Imelda May and others have made recordings of the poems, which will be featured at the event. A very special guest is Pol O'Colmain, poet and musician extraordinaire of the Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob. He is as fluent in Irish as he is in English. An excellent and charming entertainer in any language. Other poets, musicians, and even comedians have also been invited to join but anyone who wants to can get a slot of a few minutes at the Open Mic.
Cork County Library Events
Both Mallow Library and Newmarket Library are getting involved in Poetry Day Ireland. Newmarket Librarian, Peter Keating, reads a selection of original poetry alongside works by other authors in Newmarket Library on Wednesday 27 April, 11am, while members of Mallow Library's Creative Writing and Poetry Groups present poetry readings from 3pm-4.30pm on Thursday 28 April.
See www.poetryday.ie for further information.
There is also a jam-packed programme of events taking place across the country, from workshops and musical performances to poetry trails and tarot readings.
They include an online Poets Coaching Clinic (28 April) where you can grab the chance to be coached by poet Anne Tannam around all things poetry, Druid: 20 Days of Poetry with the Druid Theatre Company (28 April - 27 May), a free online initiative for secondary schools with access to the Coole Park Poetry Series to inspire a new generation of poetry enthusiasts to watch one short poetry film every school day for twenty days, Divining Dante: Four Poets celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri with Dublin City Libraries (28 April), an evening of splendid poetry and conversation with four Irish poets who contributed to an anthology marking the anniversary, with its co-editor Nessa O’Mahony, young poets and intercultural voices to bring poetry into public spaces, POETRY TRAIL on the Great Western Greenway, Co Mayo (28 April) with starry poems of spring and hopefulness, songs and music all Faoin Spéir, Pride Poets in Waterford (28 April), an embrace of poetry, music, and whatever may be written in the stars by LGBTQI+ poets and artists, A Linguistic Opera with Beir Bua Press (28 April) celebrating Written in the Stars with two online April launches; The Fabulous Op by Gregory Betts and Gary Barwin, and Wayne Mason’s <Reboot> More So…Disconnected, Creative Responses with Galway Music Residency (28 April) through which local artists respond to ConTempo's performance of classical music within their own artform, featuring stunning artwork by members of Kinvara-area Visual Arts and melodious poetry by Galway-based poet Eva Bourke, The Haibun High Tea (28 April) an online reading of haibun, the Japanese literary form that combines prose and haiku, Talk: WB Yeats and Nature (28 April), an exploration of WB Yeats’ nature poetry accompanied by a guided meditation, Creative Writing Kickstart online with Big Smoke Writing Factory (28 April) designed to get you ‘unstuck’ and generate new material riffing on ‘the future’ with group and individual writing exercises, Poetry Fortunes (28 April) where you can have your Poetry Fortune read and receive beautiful words of inner truth based on tarot reading made through a special deck of cards containing poetry via Zoom or in person on the island of Inishmore, The Moth Poetry Prize Award Ceremony (28 April), a special event online with readings by each of the poets shortlisted for The Moth Poetry Prize, followed by the announcement of the overall winner of €6,000, Living, Breathing, Poetry For All (28 April) where poet and yoga teacher Kathryn Crowley will lead small groups through a multi-sensory experience in Tralee involving poetry, writing in response to prompts, and simple breathing exercises to soothe the mind and refresh your spirit and Solar Projections (from 27 April) where participants will be shown online how to build their own DIY solar projectors from household objects and be encouraged to write a poem about their forecast for the future.
“Poetry Day Ireland presents us all with an opportunity to celebrate poetry in all its richness and diversity and as a point for connection at home and abroad. All over Ireland, Poetry Day Ireland enriches us all whether we attend an event or pick up an exquisite Pocket Poem, it's there for the taking", Director of Poetry Ireland, Liz Kelly, said today.
A selection of images can be downloaded HERE
Once again, Poetry Ireland will make available a series of uplifting Pocket Poems, which you will be able to find on social media and at poetryday.ie - read, download, print and keep.
In the run up to the 28 April, videos of some well-known faces reading their favourite poems are being released on social media.
For full programme details see poetryday.ie
#PoetryDayIRL
