Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail recently visited Winnipeg to speak at the University of Manitoba. This award-winning writer has been deeply involved in cultural matters in Ireland over many years.
Cendrine Marrouat: Hello Micheal, thank you for answering my questions. Would you tell us a little more about you?
Micheal O’Siadhail: I’m a poet. I was born in 1947 and educated at Clongowes Wood College, Trinity College Dublin, and the University of Oslo. I’m a full-time writer and have published twelve collections of poetry. My publisher is Bloodaxe Books. I have given poetry readings and broadcast extensively in Ireland, Britain, Europe, North America and Japan. Several books of translations of my work have been published in Japanese and German.
CM: Do your books share a common thread? If so, what is it?
MO’S: I don’t think I can speak of a single common thread. Maybe I could say that there’s a common weave. I’ve always tried in my work to both engage with, on one hand, public and societal concerns and, on the other, intensely personal issues. This is one strand in the weave. A second strand is my belief in the need to bring intellect and passion together. Yet another strand is a love of language, where both society and the individual meet and head and heart converge.
Photo courtesy of author
CM: Tell us about your latest projects, “At Night a Song is with Me” and “Tongues.”
MO’S: I recently did the lyrics for a long musical piece called "At Night a Song is with Me" along with Rob Mathes, the composer who arranged President Obama’s inaugural concert. It was premiered before a larger audience in Greenwich, Connecticut. It became a fabulous mix of classical, jazz and rock and gospel for two choirs, an orchestra, rhythm section and three soloists.
"Tongues" is the title of a new book of mine which is due out this September. It is a celebration of language. The way a sculptor might revel in stone, as a poet, I relish the complexity, the variety, the power and the endless creativity of language. In "Tongues" I delight in how words slip and change meaning, in the intriguing terms of grammar my generation learned as children and in how the wisdom stored in proverbs finds parallel expression in various languages.
CM: Do you have a writing routine? Or do you let the muse decide for you?
MO’S: I don’t know if I’d call it a routine. I tend to spend sometime alone each day when I think and reflect. I’d be afraid if the muse showed up and I wasn’t there she might depart in a huff.
CM: Would you share one of your poems with us?
MO’S: I’d be glad to. I mentioned the fascinating grammatical terms. Well, here’s a short poem from "Tongues." As children we learned our Latin verbs off in a singsong fashion in the way we learned our arithmetic tables. All Latin grammar books use the verb ‘to love’ as an example of how ‘to conjugate’. So we chanted for our teacher (nicknamed ‘Bulldog’) : amo, amas, amat, amamis, amatis amant; I love, you love, he loves, etc.
Conjugation
After our meat and wine
Again the time, the voice and mood combine
For conjugation,
Come-hither invitation,
I can’t decline.
Latin lover’s tense,
Amo, amas, amat – consummate nonsense,
Charms of grammar,
Source of all glamour,
Rhythm’s accidence.
A verb to x-rate –
Steady now Bulldog don’t exaggerate –
As we chant
Amamus, amatis, amant.
Let’s conjugate.
Imperative but tender
Ama! Single command of either gender.
Love me.
Subject, inflect, perfect me
In my surrender.
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CM: You recently spent some time in Winnipeg. Did you enjoy your visit and did you meet a lot of artists?
MO’S: Yes, I read at the University of Manitoba at the invitation of President David Barnard and enjoyed myself immensely. I had the great pleasure of meeting three poets: Denis Cooley, Jan Horner and Méira Cook. I also met the fiction writers Warren Cariou and John Danakas, who writes novels for young people. I shared a meal with jazzman extraordinary Steve Kirby and jazz vocalist Anna-Lisa Kirby.
CM: You wrote 12 collections. According to you, what is the role of poetry in our societies?
MO’S: I was once was told that in Sri Lanka the word for poet means ‘the one who sees the connections between things’. I love this because I believe that poetry can heal so many of the false rifts, bringing together heart, mind and body. Poetry can overcome any artificial cleft between the individual and society, between the private and the public. I think of it as a ministry of meaning which, in the light of the past, offers images and a vision to prepare the present for the future.
CM: As an author, editor and professor, which advice would you give a novice writer?
MO’S: Firstly I’m simply a poet! I did once edit a poetry journal but that’s many years ago. I left a professorship 23 years ago to devote my life to poetry.
I always offer two pieces of advice to aspiring poets. Firstly, I pass on Rilke’s admonition in his Letters to a Young Poet: "This above all – ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer….if you meet this earnest question with a strong and simple 'I must,' then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it." Secondly, I advise young poets to try and read poetry in as many different languages as they can so they broaden their poetical horizons and find their own voice.
CM: Where can people find more about you?
MO’S: If anyone wants to explore my work, I think my website would be a good place to start.
CM: Thank you again for answering my questions, Micheal!
Photo courtesy of author
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