Clare Three Legged Stool Poets February Gathering

Concentrated Listening

 I was delighted to receive  an invitation to be a guest at the monthly gathering of the Three Legged Poets Society at Glor on Saturday 20th February.  The guest poet was Paddy Bushe now living in Kerry .  It was a lively afternoon with more than a dozen or so poets reading from their work and many listeners  including Davy Arthur who was in town for a gig in Glór that evening.

I opened the procedings with a pait of planxties by Carolan . Paddy Bushe read from his several collections, most memorably, a love poem featuring a walk in Nepal.  I played  a slow air, Amhran na Leabhar which has connections to Paddy Bushe's home place and the poet filled us in on the background to this song by Tomás Rua

The afternoon had a Valentine flavour with many of the poems featuring love as a theme. Arthur Watson's poems as usual were full of humour. Mary Fean was one of only two women's voices, her poem focussing on an annual anti war protest at Shannon Airport . Willie Clancy was recalled in Brian Mooney's work . A visiting poet from Drogheda impressed with his strong direct delivery .  I closed the musical procedings with a couple of tunes prompted by the tenor of the poems read during the afternnon , My Love is Like a Red Red Rose for Jenny's poem and La Vie en Rose by Piaf , a favourite love song . A very interesting and enjoyable  afternoon was ably compered by Rob Hopkins . The gathering wound down in a leisurely fashion with poets and attendees lingering to chat after the formal procedings were done .