My CBF 2009, Part Three

So today begun my Dublin Shaped Hole in my CBF Schedule… I’ll be in the capital from today until next Tuesday, taking in Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown, South Dublin and my resident county of Fingal…

This has many advantages, I am at home every night, I see my wife every night, and I can upload my Blog every day…

But I have to make my own Breakfast and start each day with an instant coffee.

I know how pathetic that sounds, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Oh poor little poet, has to make his own breakfast.’ So we shall move on.

I started out today, on the same Train as my wife, so that was good… My wife had to go to work, so she got off at Connolly, which meant I had no photographer, so I’ve got no visual document of today’s readings, but it did happen, you can take my word for it.

We travelled during rush hour, which is interesting when you have a guitar. I realise why John Hegley, (Another Musical Poet) travels with a mandolin… I planned to alight at Dalkey, which is what I did, for my first Dublin reading.

I arrived at Dalkey Library at around 0940 hrs and was then told to situate myself by the Reading Tree they have there. This was where my performance would take place. At around 1000 hrs, around 52 children entered and one of their teachers approached me to let me know that she had witnessed my performance previously in Blackrock, and had been impressed and was really looking forward to this performance. This really pleased me, so it was a happy poet who started with the Coat-Hanger Song.

This section went wonderfully well again, Limericks were great from the Children and I think my poetry was enjoyed. After the reading, Oonagh from DLR Libraries came to pick me up to take me to Shankhill Library.

I got very paranoid at Shankhill library, because my session was to start at 1300 hrs and at 1320 hrs, there was no sign of an audience for me to read to, I was worried that they had studied my poetry in school and decided it wasn’t worth making the small journey to see me… Eventually, after the Librarian had gone to see what the trouble was, they arrived and there had just been a mix-up… I decided, for the first time, due to the late arrival that we would forego the Limerick section, and the session was another success. I was told I was funny and cool and all wanted, and received, my autograph.

Looking forward to Dundrum and Stillorgan tomorrow.