After the absolute joy of the Festival all day Saturday, home I went in the evening to my 'Adopt an Artist ' hosts, Ger Kennedy & Ciaran Conneely. It was so kind of them to have me.
Truth be told, I think they could have done without another guest! Ger had just got back from visiting family in the States so was very jet lagged and they were expecting another guest already booked with them. But they very kindly put me up on a mattress in their box room, for which I was truly grateful after a long day. They put the boiler on so that I could have a good long soak in the bath. Bliss!
As a thank you for their kindness, I decided that I would write one of my ethnographic poems with Ger.
She is a natural born storyteller and has a magical lilt in her voice. She is an artist herself and her home is a gallery for her work and that of her friends, as well as Ciaran's photography.
She told me about her childhood in Tramore and about the local history, including the Seahorse tragedy. I wrote a poem on the spot using her words which I read back to her. She was very moved.
As I had been writing the poem, Ciaran had been playing his guitar, so I was conscious that the metre of the poem had been influenced by his melody.
'Is that one of your own tunes?' I asked him.
Indeed it was and I saw this as an opportunity for us to have a 3-way collaboration.
I sat close to the guitar so that I could feel where Ciaran was going next with the tune and took the poem written using Ger's words. Ger recorded us in the moment.
It was a very beautiful creative collaboration and one which would make another appearance tomorrow.
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