Today would have been Elizabeth Bishop’s 110th birthday. The City of Key West (where EB was inspired to write the beginnings of Sandpiper) honours her today, and I can do no better than follow their example and “participate fittingly” (by reading Elizabeth Bishop!)

Many thanks to Sandra Barry, of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia, for alerting me to the Proclamation.

My latest Country Diary (based on a visit I made to Tyrella on 7 January)

Janice Dempsey, of Dempsey and Windle, who published Paul Jeffcutt’s The Skylark’s Call, kindly made a cutting of the recording of my contribution to the launch of Paul’s collection last Wednesday.

So here’s me reading ‘Stain’ from my second collection, Tribe; and ‘Wicker to Silver’ which was published last year in Cyphers (88).

My Country Diary for  Saturday’s Guardian.

What does it say in an era when awareness of the seriousness of environmental crisis that we have created has been transformed by the actions and sacrifice of a (very) young woman, the UK can’t bring even one female to the table for next year’s UN climate summit? I was angry but not surprised when I read this. I also found myself vaguely remembering something Susan Griffin wrote in Made from this Earth (1982). So I hunted it out. In the Introduction, she writes about being requested to give a lecture on ecology at the University of California in the 1970s:

“At that time, the ecology movement had made a dramatic and moral issue (out of the disposal of recyclable waste) … Because I was so overworked, I resented this … and my resentment led to a discovery. Following the reasoning of my own anger, I said that women are always asked to clean up after men. We do the dishes, wash the toilet … and now we are being asked to take care of a mess created by a society run by men.”

The 1970s lecture that Griffin gave was the stimulus for her going on to write her brilliant book-length poem Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (1978). The book examines and meditates on how “our culture identifies matter and nature with women, but culture and spirit with men.”

The exclusion of women from decision-making around our own survival shows how Griffin’s words can still hold true.

However, important and magnificent as Griffin’s contribution has been, it was 50 years ago, and  we are now in serious peril  on all fronts.

Nevertheless, the pandemic has starkly illustrated how female leadership can contribute to successful outcomes. And in the week that is in it, with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made”, it seems a no-brainer that there should be female representatives on every country’s “team”.

All our lives could depend on it.

Mooching around the internet, I was delighted to find this link. I enjoyed the launch of Cyphers 88 (wherein the poem features) in Dublin, long-ago in a pre-pandemic life, but I didn’t realise the poem was on the website till I spied it this morning. Many thanks to Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin  and her assistant editors.

My Country Diary piece in today’s Guardian.

The story of my erstwhile lockdown companion. Today’s Country Diary.

Well, we pulled it off!

The first online Living Room Folk session went out yesterday. If you didn’t get to chance to watch us live, you can catch up here.

Thanks to Mairéad O’Donnell for her able hosting of the event, as well as her wonderful musicianship and singing. And to Maeve McCann for her gorgeous compositions and playing. It was brilliant working with these two artists.

We are grateful for the support of Culture Ireland, Poetry Ireland, First Music Contact, and Facebook for their support of Ireland Performs. Ireland Performs is providing vital opportunities for artists to perform and showcase their work in the current times. The initiative runs for another few weeks so check out the other gigs and if you could like or share so that the performers can reach the widest possible audience, that would be great. Thanks!