A HUGE crowd gathered at Wexford Town Library recently for the launch of a new poetry book which features the work of 15 poets either from Wexford or with local links.
The collection ‘Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams’, which was collated by Echo editor Tom Mooney and supported by Wexford Co. Council, was launched by Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan.
Co. Arts Officer Sinead Barden welcomed everyone to the library on the Bank Holiday Monday for a special celebration of the poetic talent in the county.
Co. Council Chairman Ted Howlin said it was a great pleasure to welcome the Minister to the town and that it was great to have him here during the most important festival in the county and one of the best in the world.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the library which makes up part of the cultural spine of Wexford running from the Opera House to here, the Arts Centre and on to Selskar Abbey. There are currently people from all over the world in our town.”
He explained how the Co. Council had been approached to create an anthology of poetic talent in the county and poets were invited to submit work for consideration. From this, 15 were selected and their work is printed in the collection including: Jackie Hayden, Denis Collins, Joe Neal, Pierce Turner, Padhraig Nolan, Sean Clarkin, Helen Gaynor, Paddy Kehoe, Mary O’Brien, Margaret Galvin, Philip Quirke, Fintan Murphy, Eleanor McEvoy and Jim Maguire.
The participants were varied and had their own expertise in other areas including fine art, acting and music.
Echo Editor, and editor of the collection, Tom Mooney thanked all those who had attended on such an “autumnal day” and spoke of how for most people their first exposure to poetry was in school and learning Keats’ ‘To Autumn’. They were told at that time that poetry should carry no dead weight but that was in 1967, the world had changed and dead weight to a critic could be “ballast of the imagination to the poet.”
He added: “It took Michae Schmidt a thousand pages in his book ‘Lives of Poets’ to conclude that, if anything, a poem should never be ordinary.”
The collection had come together after a number of meeting over the past two years which resulted in the selection of a group of poets with an eclectic range: “And because they are among the most versatile and gifted of artists in their own field – music, painting, writing, designing – I have enjoyed being the beneficiary of their output over the years.”
He thanked those involved in the physical production of the book: Josephine Redmond for her design; Helen Ashdown for proof-reading the introduction; artist Caroline Ward for her image on the front cover and Joe Hogan and Hogan Print in Enniscorthy for printing the finished article.
The project was supported by Wexford Co. Council and he paid particular tribute to Sinead Barden and her colleague Sinead O’Gorman. He also thanked Cllr. Ted Howlin, Co. Manager Adrian Doyle, and Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe.
Introducing Minister Jimmy Deenihan, he said he had had the pleasure of meeting him at a launch in Rathnure two years previous and had been impressed by his passion for literature.
He finished, saying: “The poems in this volume are webbed with connections; it is for the reader to distil what they are, and to make of them their own. Finally I should like to dedicate this book to all our parents, past and present, and future, for whom, as a famous Los Angeles poet once said: “The world on you depends that life will never end”.”
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan complimented the county on its venue saying it was one of the finest libraries he had ever been in and it was a great addition to Wexford’s cultural centre.
“What you do in Wexford in relation to the Arts is so important. I’m opening a European conference about Opera here later today and it is a huge vote of confidence in Wexford that it is being held here.”
Originally from Listowel, the Minister said it was a town in which everyone wrote and liked to be published, but he said he was very enthusiastic about what had been achieved with this new collection.
“There is a huge connection in Wexford to literature, with multi-talented people printed in this book. Wexford connects you all together.”
He spoke of the importance of encouraging creativity at local level, citing the various writing groups that had sprung up around the country and encouraging the youth to get involved in the Arts.
“This project came about by accident when two people met for coffee and the idea was born. I am delighted to launch this book which you have put so much time into. It is a very valuable piece of literature.
“There’s a lot of variety in the book. You’ll find it very stimulating and a great read.”
Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams is available from [email protected].
