There is no better place to celebrate All Ireland Poetry Day than at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monoghan where I am lucky enough to be for the next two weeks thanks to Galway County Council. Poems and poets are to be found in secret pockets everywhere: The deer in the garden at midnight, the uplight of light, the pavlova.
There will be a reading this evening after we have feasted at the long table. Here is my one for today taken from my collaboration with Lisa C. Taylor, The Other Side of Longing (Arlen House, 2011)
Get a Life, Mr Rembrandt!
(Artist self-portrait at the Wadsworth Atheneum)
Unwrinkle the brow, plump up the lips
Botox the furrow between the mournful eyes
Airbrush the weak chin from your father's side,
that swarthy nose from your mam's
Get the toilet-brush hair gelled
Flaunt diamond studs on the left lobe
A tattoo on the rippling biceps,
I luv u Hendrickje Stoffels
Put the grizzly bear coat up on eBay
Ditch the hat,
but don't let go of the hands.
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