Poetry as Medicine
Is file mé. Say it loud, say it proud and begin.
What we call poetic license is unique permission in this Striving for Perfection to be imperfect, unpolished, without reason or rhyme even. Be the diamond in the rough. The journey of the poet is the search for your own authentic voice. And it requires you give expression to many voices that compete for identity in your head. It may require that you dribble your wretchedness onto the page for many years before power eventually embues your pros. And your spellings become true spells. The page offers a means of expression, the recitation a modern confession, and the listeners reception precludes your progression.
Is file mé, say it loud, say it proud and begin.
If all Irish teachers exuded the passion and enthusiasm of Siobhán de Paor the whole island would be speaking the language fluently within a few weeks. She takes just a single word and mines it for layers of meaning and nuance, drawing it out from the dictionary and verbally caressing it to make it pulse with life.
Each of the students draws a slip of paper with a word on it which we are encouraged to explore and with Siobhán’s endless enthusiasm this much neglected and often derided language suddenly becomes vibrant and animated again.
- Tony Baile, the Irish News
Wild Art
comets in the oil slicks and mytical creatures in the jetsom, through the eyes of a child, in collaboration with nature we will improvise live theatre, make sacred mandalas and nature altars, with characters cobbled together from the found objects of woodlands and coastlines, we will make art.
I have been running EALAIN FIAIN since 2021: a creative art retreats for women in the Burren. Details here
bia fiáin
wild edibles
lea
seaweed patties, dandelion beer, nettle pesto. learn the names and use of the wild weeds of land and sea.
Featured on RTE 2022 Series Faoi Bláth
Fe
Using the foclóir as medium to the ancestors, we will mine journey to the depths of the language, mining the precious gems within to reveal ancestral knowledge, understandings and to unwrap the mysteries hidden in our teanga dúchas.