Book launch postponed due to weather conditions

Scaling the Heights by Rosy Wilson will now be launched on Thursday 3 February 2011 in Signal Arts Centre, Bray. Guest Speaker Joe Woods, Director Poetry Ireland

Put it in your diary now!

Rosy Wilson launches new book

Rosy Wilson has written her second collection of poetry, Scaling the Heights. Joe Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland, will launch her book on Wed 1st Dec in Signal Arts Centre, Bray. Everyone is invited to join the party which kicks off at 7pm.
Her book can be ordered from this site.

Poems from Tyrone Guthrie Centre

Stepping back

from a country

a world

an economy in crisis

on a misty morning

I pocket acorns

raining down

pick up conkers

still creamy

in their wombs

promising to find

a vacant site,

damp soil for them.

After that

they’re on their own.

by Judy Russell


Annaghmakerrig

To say
I’ve been here
among the teacups
and the plates
the struggling
and the great

is enough


by Carol Boland

 

Annamaghkerrig

Wistful evening light and quiet

lends me a still life of leaves

fragile in their leaving, a brocade

of sycamore and oak, one sequoia tree

high, out of its world, blue limestone paths

and shadows green on green.

I memorise the moment

when darkness closes in, there will be

times when I shall  need it.

by Bernie Kenny


As I reach the lake

ripples reflect

lights of the morning

some pink like the dawn

more grey and silver

five ducks fly over

holding formation

like Children of Lir grown

smaller and brown

scoot quacking

on wavelets to shallows

the shelter of reeds

leaving the water

silent and still

as pools of your eyes

blue flecked with hazel

before they were closed.

On the shore under cover

of hazel and chestnut

mindfulness stretching

I breathe in this autumn.

by Rosy Wilson

Seven Poppy Pods Stand Tall

                                      after a painting by Helen Comerford

encrusted paint on board

wild red petals faded, fallen.

Seven round bellies fatten grey,

they are in pod, ready

to drop seed for spring

to rouse the flower.

came in late autumn

beyond showy petal

milk-filled sap, seed filled belly.

Embedded.

Bealtaine came in autumn

pregnant with words.

by Marguerite Colgan

Shed Poets at Tyrone Guthrie Centre

Five Shed Poets as members of Bealtaine Writers returned recently
from a week in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan. With workshops each morning, swims in and boating on the lake, and lots of forest walks, there will be poems galore posted on this site shortly

Keep watching

Shed Poets with Liz McManus T.D.

From L to R: Rosy, Judy, Bernie, Carol, Liz McManus T.D. Maureen and Marguerite

Launch pics of the poets

Judy

Maureen

Marguerite

Bernie

Carol

Rosy with Liz MeManus T.D.

Rosy Wilson on Lyricfm

Listen to Rosy Wilson interviewed by Aedin Gormley on Arts News on Lyricfm

Strands of Silk Launch - Full House

What an evening! The launch of Strands of Silk held on Thursday 5th August was a great success with the Signal Arts Centre packed with well-wishers for the group's fourth publication. The crowd included artists, poets, musicians, friends and family from as far afield as Gorey in the south to Swords in the north.

Liz McManus T.D. who launched the evening, spoke of the high quality of the poems and the publication before handing over to the poets who each read two poems from the book.

A collection which reveals over and over the dangerous joy of dealing unashamedly and fearlessly, for better or worse, with the myriad possibilities of the real
                                      from Foreword by Macdara Woods

If you would like to purchase this fine book - price €7 - then email us at shedpoets@hotmail.com or tel M: 0851138367

Shed Poets on Arts News Lyric FM

The deed is done - Rosy Wilson has been interviewed by Aedin Gormley for the Arts News slot on Drive Time. We will let you know went the interview will be aired.

Well Done Rosy!

Shed Poets to read on Lyric fm

Lyric fm's Aidin Gormley will be interviewing the Shed Poets on her radio show.
We'll let you know the date and time soon!

Liz McManus TD to launch Strand of Silk

We are delighted to announce that Liz McManus TD has kindly agreed

to launch our forthcoming publication on Thursday 5th August in

Signal Arts Centre, Bray.

All welcome to join us in our celebration

Invitation to launch of Strands of Silk

    You are invited to the launch of

    Strands of Silk

   A selection of poems by

   The Shed Poets

   Thursday 5 August 2010

   7pm – 9pm

   Signal Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow

   We look forward to seeing you there!

Some Poems

The name of our new poetry book has been agreed - Strands of Silk.

We hope to launch this exciting fourth publication early August and in the meantime

here are a few more poems . . .

When I peel onions

I cry for the child I was,

playing with chanies

finding late strawberries

and getting in the way

while father saved his onion crop

spread it out to dry.

On Lenten Fridays, onions

made dinner, sautéed in butter

with parsley sauce, potatoes,

pepper, salt, great appetites.

For Easter Day boiled onion skins

dyed our hard-boiled eggs

Rhode Island red and we were eight

around the breakfast table

when the sun danced.

Bernie Kenny

Sorcery in Caheraderry

The home grows from a ring fort

through the clay of Caheraderry

as we fish lines of syllables

from grey Liscannor stone.

Across a marshy field, flag irises

shine through this greener grass

oversee the lift and return

of two coffin stools

legs turned vermicular and

splayed to take the load -

appanages of dignity that lightly

held a master’s weight a month ago.

And like the sorcerer’s apprentice

we witness the breaking of a spell

as coffin stools turn back

into occasional tables.

Carol Boland

She chose the rose

You live in oracle song

arouse the wisdom of sages

whose stories sing

in the lilt of your pen.

Through your epics

Cú Chulainn stalks

in rhyme upon rhyme

a hero alive in the Táin.

Maude Gonne at Howth station

you knelt at her feet

but her heart only listened

to a marching beat.
Maureen Perkins

A selection of poems

The Shed Poets are currently working on a fourth collection of poems. There are just a few:

As black clouds gather 

rain spits tinny drops

on the empty watering can,

butterflies dart frantic for cover.

The birds have gone quiet,

thunder prowls along the ridge,

as black clouds gather

a rocking girl stops up her ears,

the post man pedals past

mumbling

half forgotten prayers

under his breath

as black clouds gather

Judy Russell

I dream tonight

you are beside

me in the bed

I turn over quietly

not to disturb your sleep

stretch a gentle arm

Around your shoulder

hub empty air where

your firm flesh should be

as though a hare

has loped over the edge

a heron’s flown form

its familiar tree.        

Rosy Wilson 

Bald eagle

 An old cottontree traces trunk and limbs,

skeletal, across bare blue winter sky,

a bald eagle, blacksheen cloak, white hood

perches on the highest twig.

The sacred bird looks over his America,

land older than the united states.

Once it was prairie home to the red-man,

crossed by pioneers on Waggon Road inching West.

The Big Dry Creek flows still a slow stream.

Tumbleweed hurtles by as always

prairie dogs whoop their sundance, now

coyotes keep shy distance as tarmac

and rubber tyres crisscross this plain,

the stripmall, Mc Donalds,  the village new-planted.

Does he notice us purring by in the red mustang. 

Marguerite Colgan