Saturday, April 30, 2011

Tommy Muray Wins The Great Drogheda Poetry Grand Slam

Delighted to be declared the outright winner of the Great Drogheda Poetry Grand Slam.  It wasn't easy and I had to read three poems to be finally declared the winner.  There was also a huge entry and it was all well worth it in the end.  My colleague and fellow member of The Meath Writer's Circle, Jimmy Peppard  put in  a sterling performance  and was hugely popular with the crowd.  This is my first win so far this year.  All in all a great contest

 Roger Hudson Tommy Murray(Winner) and judge Marie McSweeney  Three Lapwing Poets at the Drogheda Poetry Grand Slam



More Pictures from the Grand Slam

Congratulations on your win on Saturday night. Here is the image you asked for, plus an image of your race to the finish line! Most enjoyable.

Kind Regards
Frank Kelly

Isobel wrote
"Many congratulations Tommy another trophy for the collection!x"

Maryann Suydam Hi Tommy. I am enjoying 'MEATH'. 



                                           

Friday, April 22, 2011

Happy Easter


A very Happy Easter from the Meath Writer’s Circle
To
 
Willie Hodgins - Jimmy Peppard-  Isobel Maisto  - Moyra Lawlor-  Frank Murphy,  Paul Martin - Mark Doyle -  Sean Kane -  Pat Bennett -  Sean Reilly - Mick Sheils  John Wiseman - James Linnane (Ballivor)-and Carmel Murray (Kilmessan)  Tom Gillispie and Frank Goodman (Dunshauglin)

Happy Easter also to Dave at The Author’s Friend—Ronan at Nonsuch (The History Press) Denis at Lapwing Barney at the Whitehouse John Makem at The Bard of Armagh –Tom and Sharon and the staff of  The Navan Library John and Noelle at The Meath Chronicle, Liam and Michael at Riposte, Evan at Meath News and Sport, Noel French at Focus and all the members of the Navan Junior Writers Group.

Our wishes also extend to  those who gave us links from their sites.  This is very much appreciated

The next meeting of the Meath Writer’s Circle will be on Thursday 5th May in the Trim Castle Hotel while the Next meeting of the Navan Junior Group will be on Saturday 7th May in the Navan Library

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Virtual Writer Longford

The Colony

by Tommy Murray

So what’s a dozen serial killers then
Or the odd assassin
God bless them
And who’s for infanticide
Matricide
Not to mention murder
And mayhem
And thuggery
And three kinds of thievery

There’s promiscuity here too
And polygamy
And adult homosexual couplings
On a grand scale
With fowl language
And slanging matches
The norm, and
There have also been reports of gang rape

Oh yes, it’s all here
In this Hitchcockian swirl
Of screaming gulls and guillemots

This poem is one of three poems that I currently have on the' Virtual Writer 'website

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Camel -A New Poem by Tommy Murray

Camel

Stare me down if you must

With your ageless dreams, rhythms

Oars dipping to drumbeat, caravans

Inching across the horizon

But tell me

Did you doze off too?

When Scheherazade lulled

The insomniac Harun

Or eavesdrop on

The small talk of Kings bearing gifts

And you surely must have blushed

When Salome danced

Or blinked in unbelief

At the grave of Lazarus

Still, you had your fifteen minutes

Tethered to a dog wood, perhaps

On the slopes of Calvary

And you could hardly

Have remained impassive

When they nailed his hands and feet

Videos Now on You Tube with View Count on 15th April 2011

Tommy Murray reads Rathnally Boreen 44

Tommy Murray at the Delish Part One 75

Tommy Murray at the Delish Part Two 79

Tommy Murray Battle of the Books 354

Tommy Murray at the Whitehouse 179

Tommy Murray Bard of Armagh 289

Tommy Murray Famine Trilogy 56

Tommy Murray at Trim Castle 5 Uploaded Today

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Lean- to by Tommy Murray

Lean-to

Immortalised in albums

And affectionately framed

Family gatherings, that

Will be me with the broken plinth

And the dark patch

Where the pebbledash ran out

A ponytail of bits and pieces

Hand me downs and afterthoughts

I am hardly photogenic

But once when September posed impromptu

I was for a split second

Three sixteenths of a spectacular sunset


This little poem which I wrote some years back was published in the Kilkenny Literary Review

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Oldbridge Country Fair Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre

Oldbridge Country Fair
Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre
Oldbridge, Drogheda, Co. Meath
Time Outdoor Arena
11.00 -11.30 Living History 17th Century
Cavalry Display
12.00 - 1 . 0 0 Coin Minting
1.00 - 1.30
Living History 17th Century
Cavalry Display
2.00 - 3.00 Fly-Casting Demonstrations
3.15 - 4.15 Falconry Display
4.15 - 4 . 4 5 Coin Minting
4.45 - 5.15 Living History 17th Century
Cavalry Display
Time Indoor Marquee
11.00 -5.00 Local Craft Makers & Food Producers
12.00 - 1.30
2.00 - 3.00
Flower Arranging Demonstrations
& Competition
3.00 - 4.00 Short Gardening Talks
Short Gardening Talks
Drogheda Arts Festival Event at Oldbridge
‘Come Forward to Meet You’
by
Upstate Theatre Project

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The New English Teacher

The New English Teacher

You know how it is in September

The first day back

Trying to come to terms with the new colour scheme

The wall, immaculate in magnolia

Doors, the worse for blue

Who’s new you wonder

As you notice the empty locker

Cleaned out except for the rubber band

And the heavily pencilled copy

Of ‘Getting to grips with English’

A limp handshake

And you feel as if you knew Miss Brody all your life

The little hen like movements of the head

The turn of phrase

The play on words are all so familiar

That you suddenly find yourself

Scanning the picture of last years staff outing

Trying to find a place for her in the line up,

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Moth

Just looking at the list of places that stock 'The Moth' Magazine one would have to be impressed

The Moth is also stocked in the following outlets:

Bandon Books, Cork
Bell, Book & Candle, Galway
Bluewall Gallery, Cavan
The Bookseller Crow on the Hill, London
Books Upstairs, Dublin
The Bookshop at Queen’s, Belfast
Charlie Byrnes Bookshop, Galway
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Crannóg Bookshop, Cavan
Dingle Bookshop, Kerry
Eason nationwide
Foyle's, London
Kenny’s Bookshop & Art Gallery, Galway
Kinsale Bookshop, Cork
Liber Bookshop, Sligo
London Review Bookshop, London
Saqi Bookshop, London
Shakespeare & Co., Paris
The Rathgar Bookshop, Dublin
The Winding Stair, Dublin

Monday, April 4, 2011

Hovis

Listening to Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9

“From the New World”

It begins with a tap on the shoulder

A horn call

Oboes arching to octave

A sort of “wish you were here” a

“Come let us stroll along

Those chordal paths

Those misty regions

Where trumpets rise sequoia high

And woodwind choirs sing low.

Where the hush of flute and horn

Fall moccasin soft

On tender homesick melodies

Between subtle intrusions

Of kettledrum and brass

And cakewalk rhythms pander

To the syncopated beat

Of dancing feet

Before embarking

On hair raising tonal excursions

To distant keys and cotton fields


The Hovis people spent hours trying to decipher this poem before sending me a very nice letter

Friday, April 1, 2011

Father's Day

Father’s Day

We knew that mother’s day

Would be a hard act to follow

Flowers were out

Make up, a mockery

We considered chocolates

A lying in state of succulent shapes

With a blue ribbon and a bar code

Before settling for a selection of scratch cards

And a prayer

That you would win enough

To boost our inheritance


Congratulations to 10 year old Laetitia Igwe on her recent success in the Meath Art and Poetry competition. Laetitia's poem is called 'Nationalities' She is a member of the Navan Junior Writer's Group which meet every Saturday morning in the Navan Library

Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2011

Closing date for The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Comp Friday 22nd July