'I don't see... contradiction between poetry and technology'

Micheal O'Siadhail is a rarity in these times -- a full-time poet. He has published 13 collections, travelled the world giving readings, and was recently in Winnipeg to speak at the University of Manitoba. The award-winning writer, editor, professor and founding chairman of ILE (Ireland Literature Exchange) was asked to respond to a few questions from the Winnipeg Free Press. Here's what he had to say:

What inspires you to write these days, are they the same forces that inspired you at the age of 20?

A friend recently texted me a poem I published at 20 in a student poetry magazine at Trinity College Dublin. I was amused to see how at 20 I was so absorbed with the brevity of life. Now that I'm in my 60s I find that I'm fascinated by the endless richness of the world.

When you look back at your earlier work, do you wish you could change it, revise it, or are you at peace with what you have written?

Although I was writing poems since I was boy, I'm rather glad I didn't publish my first collection until I was 31. I feel I'd found my voice by then. All my poems have been recorded over the last year or so and this has forced me to reread all my work. I like to think I can stand over what I've written. As I approach a full collection of my poems in two or three years' time, I incline to tinker a little here and there but not to rewrite.

Of which work are you proudest?

I would have to say my latest book Globe. But then as I have a new book Tongues, which is a celebration of language, due from Bloodaxe in September, I know that if you were to ask me the same question next year my preference would have shifted. I suppose it's natural to be proudest of work you've just completed.

If you could choose one poem to leave behind as a legacy, which would it be and why?

It's difficult to choose one poem but I think it would have to be Matins for You from Our Double Time. It's a love poem which celebrates my wife, who has shaped my life over so many years. It moves between the wonder of intimacy and the mystery, which a loved one always remains.

Is there a place for poets and poetry in this technological society?

I have got to say that I don't see any necessary contradiction between poetry and technology. After all, poetry is about creating high quality sound-bites. Some of what technology enables is quite wonderful. For instance I'm very glad to have a website and I'm constantly amazed at the numbers of hits it gets.

You are a well-travelled man -- what would you say was your most bizarre public performance, and in what place?

I recently did the lyrics for a long musical piece called At Night a Song is with Me with Rob Mathes, the composer who arranged President Obama's inaugural concert. It premiered before a larger audience in Greenwich, Conn. I read briefly before and after this fabulous mix of classical, jazz and rock and gospel. It was an amazing experience.

Was this your first trip to Winnipeg, and if so, what were your impressions? Did you meet any poets while you were here?

It was wonderful coming in to land for the first time in Winnipeg and to see this urban island in the prairies. For me, Winnipeg represents the very heart of Canada and is emblematic of the extraordinary social mosaic that is Canada. Due to the generosity and hospitality of David Barnard, president of the University of Manitoba, and his wife Gursh, I met all sorts of fascinating people. I had conversations with Danish and Scottish scientists, jazzman Steve Kirby from St. Louis, a Métis, an Icelandic professor and a fourth-generation Canadian Icelandic speaker, a Filipina, a Portuguese, a South African, a second-generation Greek speaker, a second-generation Norwegian, a Hungarian and so on.

I had stimulating conversations with poets Dennis Cooley, Jan Norton and Méira Cook, all who live and write in Winnipeg.

Matins for You

(first verse)

Come again glistening from your morning shower

Half-coquettishly you'll throw

Your robe at me calling out 'Hello! Hello!'

I turn over stretching out to snatch

A bundle from the air and once more to watch

That parade across your bower.

Jaunty, brisk, allegro,

Preparing improvisations of yet another day

As on our first morning twenty-seven years ago...

(Excerpted from

Our Double Time)

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 5, 2010 H12