Charles S. Carr- Dublin, Ireland 2014

ORGANIZER: Charles S. Carr

CONTACT: CCarr@ccisnorth.org

“…The story is quite simple. I reviewed the 100,000 Poets site and searched on the Ireland link to find if there were any readings in Dublin, since I returned there from Donegal to do some more research on my ancestry at the Ireland National Library. I was certain that in Ireland the land of poetry, that assuredly I would find something. On the 25th I visited both the Dublin Writers Museum (which is a quite remarkable place to visit) and the Irish Writers Center, next door on Parnell Square East. A representative at the Irish Writers Center explained that they were doing something on October 2nd. He could tell me nothing about any other readings on the 27th in Dublin which would be part of this 100,000 Poets For Change. So in the City famous for writers and literature, I was on my own. Across the square from the Dublin Writers Museum is the Garden of Remembrance, a lovely public park- very spacious which was dedicated to the remembrance of those who fought and died in the cause of Irish Freedom. I decided then and there that on the 27th I would read there front and center under the sculpture “Children Of Lir”. On the 27th my wife Karen made a sign from a flap of white cardboard that we got from a market close to our hotel. The sign read 100,000 POETS FROM CHANGE- DUBLIN IRELAND – OPEN AIR READING- 2014 SEPTEMBER 27 ( a photo is attached). We arrived at the Garden at noon, where a major rally to repeal Ireland’s 8th Amendment, banning abortions, was gathering getting ready for a march through Dublin Center. After the march began the park quieted down considerably and my wife and I set up under the sculpture and I began to read my poems while she videoed with my our iPad. I started by reading a poem by Dublin born author Liam Mac Uistin,” We Saw A Vision”, which is inscribed in gold lettering on one of the walls of the Garden, “In the darkness of despair we saw a vision/We lit the light of hope and it was not extinguished/In the desert of discouragement we saw a vision/We planted the tree of valour and it blossomed/In the winter of bondage we saw a vision/We melted the snow of lethargy and the river of resurrection flowed from it/We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river. The vision became a reality/Winter became summer. Bondage became freedom and this we left to you as your inheritance/O generations of freedom remember us, the generations of the vision.

I did not have a large audience. In fact a trio of young boys began to interrupt and heckle a bit. Some visitors stopped to listen to this and other poems which I read from my book Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poems- including the “The Situation Room”; “Dignified Transfer” “The Most Segregated Hour” and “Haitian Mud Pies”.

It was liberating to read in a public square. We should bring more of our poems out to the open air wherever and read-rather than in book stores, libraries and classrooms- to can give the broader community the opportunity to listen to poems which address the things which are occurring in our City and around the world.

That’s all.

All the best

Charles