There's an excellent documentary by Paddy Cahill about the iconic Liberty Hall in Dublin on RTÉ 1 TV at 8.30pm tonight. Liberty Hall may or may not be in danger of being demolished - the jury appears to be out still on this, thank God. I would hate to see it go.
I used Paddy's programme and his (and others') articles from The Dubliner magazine as inspiration and research for the collaborative poems I wrote with artist Cora Cummins for Marks.
Here's one of my poems from Marks, the Circa / Stinging Fly collaboration:
GULL
On the rooftop of this urban aurora,
a gull, strayed up from a squat Martello,
shapes her eyes to the view:
a ballet of cranes, vying for space,
swinging down on the bay’s skyline
green trains darting to Howth, Bray,
and less lofty points between
the bridges that bracelet the river,
each named for a different man
copper domes and yellow buses,
the slender finger of the Spire.
She beaks the air and lets fly.
