Are Artists Augurs? asks the exhibition which opened in the Higher Bridges Gallery on the 7th of April and runs to the 29th. Cirque des Oiseux is French for Circus of Birds or rather the circling of birds in flight, something we notice particularly at this time of year as new migrants begin to arrive. Continue reading “Cirque des Oiseux: Artists & Augurs”
Author: Jenny Brien
Corncrakes
Not one among the rushes
None in the meadows
None where the farmer dropped to his knees
Lamenting the crumpled nest its requiem Continue reading “Corncrakes”
Peregrinations
If you took a chance
And let those plates stop spinning,
Stuck your hands in your pockets
Or your fingers in your ears
And stepped back –
What would happen then?
Two Poems by Teresa Kane
HORIZON
I have a daughter with eyes as wide and blue as the sky
what advice can I give as she stands before me, smiling
set to fly? There will be days when clouds come in
when rains pour down hard but don’t worry,
I’ve packed your boots, you can sing and splash
dance the dance you learned here in your own back yard. Continue reading “Two Poems by Teresa Kane”
Fermanagh Time
This time of year the days lengthen, the clocks go forwards, and busy people have for once an excuse for being late. Not so in Fermanagh. Here the rhythm never changes; it is constant all year round. Summer or winter, you may wait half an hour for someone to turn up – and if you chance to wonder aloud what is keeping them, then people wag their heads and say, “Ah, Fermanagh Time.” Continue reading “Fermanagh Time”
Ghosts
We set out that morning
Bright and determined
To make our mark
On this frozen place, Continue reading “Ghosts”
The Spark
For those of you not familiar with it, The Spark is a Local History and Arts Review magazine. It is published once a year in April and is distributed in seven counties of the North-West: Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim and north Sligo.
The next issue (No. 30) has almost 30 articles and features that cover a wide spectrum of interests – local history, interviews, visual art and poetry as well as book reviews and other matters about books and publishing. Continue reading “The Spark”
The Magic of Music
There are so many things in this world that divide us as human beings, that seem to create conflict and strife, but if there is one thing that can be pointed to, as bringing brings people together in a positive way, it is music. Continue reading “The Magic of Music”
Poems and Places
An Impermanent Path
a place of enforced solitude
a temporary surface
a washboard for a man’s fortitude
a horizontal horizon drawn neatly
between the curve of the sea and the sky
two halves of a broken eggshell
brought together
to form a vista
to compel those eyes
toward a flat
featureless void Continue reading “Poems and Places”
Always Keep Your Pass
I could not believe my eyes. Could it be real? Was it a trick of my imagination? A mirage perhaps? What was before me was an Ulsterbus. But why on this road as it was not a bus route? Where was the driver?
Could this be the first chance ever to use my Bus Pass? It was the only concession I had been awarded two years ago after a lifetime of paid taxes and contributions. Free spectacles, free dental treatment, free chiropody and the rest? Forget it! All a futile socialist dream… Continue reading “Always Keep Your Pass”