Today marks Poetry Day Ireland, with more than 100 events around the country to celebrate our heritage in verse.
One of the busiest spots will be Poetry Ireland's new premises on Parnell Square in Dublin. There, Lewis Kenny will be writing poems on demand on the building's steps from 12.45pm to 3.45pm. (You might know Kenny from his poem May, released in the run up to Mothers' Day this year, with a short film by Tony Callaly. )
If you can’t get into Parnell Square, we’ve arranged that Kenny will write some poems before that between 12pm and 1pm today. Simply tweet @poetryireland with the hashtag #poemsondemand, and Kenny will pick 10 from the tweets received and write a poem for each. Let him know who the poem would be for and an idea of what you would like the poem to be about. If you are one of the 10 lucky people, a photo of the poem will be tweeted back to you later today.
Poetry Ireland will also be hosting a seminar on the business of poetry and the award ceremony of the Ballymaloe International €10,000 Poetry Prize in association with The Moth. It will also launch Colette Bryce's Selected Poems and there will be a reading with Scottish poet Don Paterson.
Elsewhere, at lunchtime, Tara Flynn will host a broadcast from Facebook's Dublin HQ, featuring well-known personalities reading their favourite poems. Readers include former US vice president Joe Biden, Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, activist Sinéad Burke, actor Lisa Dwan, The Pogues' Cait O'Riordan, Marie Heaney and Marian Richardson. Click here for details.
In Galway, the Cúirt International Festival of Literature will present an exhibition of more than 50 works inspired by a line from Emily Dickinson's poem Hope is the Thing with Feathers and PJ Lynch's The Big Picture, as well as a workshop with Martina Evans. There is also an evening of song, poetry, social history and tall tales with Seamus Ruttledge, Martina Evans, Sarah-Anne Buckley, Conor Montague and special guests at Róisín Dubh, Galway.
For full details of events see poetryday.ie.
