September was a crazy month – as if opening up further during COVID was a fever in itself.

Don’t get me wrong – it has been great! A month that included a few days in west Clare with my family, and visits from friends who live abroad, or have just recently moved home. Plus Real. Live. Events.

Thanks to the wonderful initiative from Poetry Ireland, Ennistymon in north Clare was one of 20 places designated a ‘poetry town’. The place was full of poetry for over a week: in shops, appearing on the streets after rain, in schools, and during events held outdoors and – gasp! – indoors too. Not least of these events was the Poetry Town launch, when we heard the Ennistymon poet laureate Grace Wells read her poem especially composed for the project. But there was a bonus for us: another long poem that Grace had written for Ennistymon – a copy should be given to every household in the town. It was marvellous – making the point that there’s an Ennistymon for everyone, including the poet herself who made her home there a few years ago. Sarah Clancy was MC for the event, and Siobhán Mulcahy – Arts Officer for Co. Clare – gave a lovely opening speech. Afterwards a few of us sang or read poems.

I said on social media that it was a fantastic feeling to be back with my tribe. And I wasn’t the only one who felt a bit emotional. As the Beatles sang, It has been a long, cold, lonely winter. One that lasted well over eighteen months for many of us in the Arts world.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, I was asked to give a workshop to secondary school students as a part of the Poetry Town Ennistymon week. On the 16th of September, I met forty students from third year at Scoil Mhuire to discuss ‘Why Poetry?’. Thanks so much to their teacher Mary McGlennon and the students for their welcome. We still had to observe COVID protocols, and I would love to have had more time, but we managed to look at the sonnet as a form – especially in the play for the Junior Cert, Romeo & Juliet. Having shown them an example of an erasure poem, the girls were given copies of poems they will be studying later and invited to dive in and create erasure poems of their own. Take that, Heaney and Owen!

Photo courtesy of Scoil Mhuire Facebook page

Some Twitter exchanges resulted in a poets’ coffee morning at The Larder Café in my home village. Sarah, and Grace arrived from up and down the road, while Nessa and Leanne & Georgina were visiting. Such a nice way to spend a morning, and we were blessed with the weather. Thanks to Peter for the photo!

September ended with my study/library still in a ‘state of chassis’: having pulled it apart and culled a lot of paperwork, I’ve decided to redecorate. But that will have to wait. My sister is CAT-sitting, and I am typing this during a writer’s residency that began a couple of days ago.

To be continued. Which is how I hope it goes creatively for the rest of 2021!

Take care of yourselves, loveens, and keep the dastardly COVID at bay.