Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan (2011)

For the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series 2011, Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan read from their works on September 19th in the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. Joseph M. Hassett, Folger Poetry Board member and author of W.B. Yeats and the Muses, introduced the reading and moderated the conversation. Imagine Ireland (an initiative of Culture Ireland) supported the event.

Paula Meehan

Paula Meehan is an award-winning Irish poet, playwright, and professor. Her books of poetry include Painting Rain, Return and No Blame, Pillow Talk, and Dharmakaya, among others. She is a recipient of the Butler Award for Poetry from the Irish American Cultural Institute.

Theo Dorgan

Theo Dorgan is a poet, prose writer, editor, and translator. His latest poetry collections include Greek and What This Earth Costs Us. He has written scripts for film documentaries and worked as a presenter of literature programs on radio and television for more than 25 years. A former director of Poetry Ireland, he is the recipient of the 2010 Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Prize for Irish Poetry.

Excerpts

From "Grandmother, Gesture" (1)

My grandmother’s hands come back to soothe me.

They smell of rain. They smell of the city.

They untangle my hair and smooth

my brow. There’s more truth

To those hands than to all the poems

in the holy books . . .

—Paula Meehan

From "Ithaca"(2)

There will be time in the long days and nights,

stunned by the sun or driven by the stars,

to unwind your spool of life.

—Theo Dorgan

(1) From Dharmakaya © 2002 by Paula Meehan, published by Wake Forest University Press. Used with permission.

(2) From Greek © 2010 by Theo Dorgan, published by Dedalus Press. Used with permission.