Part I: I Could Marry an Irish Taxi Driver…
I have fallen for an Irish taxi driver named Paul. There’s a story here, but not one for the blog, I’m afraid; it’s more grand inside my head than on paper…and ours was a fleeting romance of a cab ride from Merrion Square to Grafton Street….but ask me sometime, when we’re out for dinner, and I’m drinking wine. It’s a good tale! (I also believe that I could elope with a Dubliner….or marry him to save him from the current economic downfall. Pickings are slim at home, but the men here are flirty, sexy and fine. ‘Nough said! They seem to like hobbits here…. 😉
Part II: Stalking Patrick Kavanagh
I’m writing this in the posh lobby of the Grand Hotel in Malahide, just outside of Dublin proper. I’m in the lobby because that is the only place where the Wifi signal is strong, and free. (Apparently right beside the fireplace is the only spot that can do the trick!) Everywhere else, well, they charge an arm and a leg.
Lobby couch surfing is awesome for people watching, I might add…I can listen to the work man who has a rough accent and is talking with the concierge, or I can watch the Scotsman in a kilt who is at a rowdy wedding reception in some grand wallpapered ballroom down the corridor, or I can just listen to the Polish receptionist speaking with the girl from Drogheda. Any option is pretty fascinating…and allows me to eavesdrop…and write something later…
So….on to “Stalking Patrick Kavanagh.” With just a few hours before check-out in Dublin this morning, I had my trusty tour book with walking route in hand…and jotted down directions to the Patrick Kavanagh statue near the Grand Canal. I wandered round Merrion Square, down Fitzwilliam Upper and then (logically) Fitzwilliam Lower (!), turning left onto Leeson Street. You have to know where the statue is because the canal is quite long. Thankfully, my trusty tour book had it marked. I wandered along the canal at 9:20am….sunlight slicing through emerald green leaves of trees that hang like a canopy over the water. For some time, I thought I’d gone the wrong way. Maybe I should have turned right instead of left, but soon I could see the silhouette of a man seated on a park bench. It was him.
Patrick Kavanagh is one of my favourite Irish poets…Yeats is my fave, Heaney follows, but Kavanagh is up there with the greats, too. He, like Yeats, was a forerunner in Irish poetry. He’s one of my poetic men. He wrote one of the most beautiful poems in history (Irish or otherwise) called “Raglan Road.” It’s been put to music, often, and sung by many Irish singers. Sinead O’Connor does a nice version…but I think I’ve also heard a Shane McGowan version, too. Van Morrison’s is amazing, but Luke Kelly (of The Dubliners) does what I think is one of the best renditions ever. (You can check it out on Youtube if you’re interested.) Doesn’t matter who sings it….the words are the thing. You can read it, if you’d like, and you’ll be a finer person for reading it and letting it sink into your soul, by going to the following link:
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8507405-On_Raglan_Road-by-Patrick_Kavanagh
So….I see the outline of the man sitting on the bench and think to myself: “Self, this must be one of the world’s best statues….” He is weather-worn and greenish bronze, sitting on the bench with his legs crossed and his hat to his left, gazing out on the beauty that is the Grand Canal. I took photos and, again, because I seem to want to touch things to ensure I’m really here, really in the moment, I looked around and (because it was relatively early for a Saturday), rubbed his shoe. “You’re amazing….a real inspiration.” I spoke the words quietly, even though no one was near by to hear me. (You don’t want people hearing you talk to statues of dead poets and rubbing their metal shoes….it sends the wrong message… 😉
Wandered back to Merrion Square and found the two houses that W.B. Yeats lived in…once (at #52) when he was ‘just a poet and playwright’ and later (at #82) when he was a senator and involved in speaking up for Irish independence. What a man…what a poet….what a life. I cannot wait to see Sligo again. (Last time I was there was 1996….and I am not ashamed to say that I snatched a little pebble off his grave near Drumcliffe as a momento…something I may well do yet again later this week….)
Met a painter on Merrion Square. Bought three beautiful watercolours for 60 euros. Could’ve done with two for 40 euros…but then the third spoke to me and I thought “Self….you’re only here so often…buy the third!”
Got caught in a rainstorm in Malahide this afternoon….one moment it’s raining and the next the wind blows it off to the ocean….so momentous that even the weather here reminds you to live in the moment…to honour the natural world…to be blessed with holy water from the sea that is only just across the narrow road.
peace,
k.
Hi!
I was just thinking that I had not seen a post from you yet to day! So great to read your wonderful words! Glad you are having a good time.
hey….just off to bed now. so tired. cannot sleep well at all. couldn’t sleep until 4am last night, and then up at 8am…body still thinks it’s in Canada. glad you like the bloggings…it’s just something new. will continue after i return…most writers have blogs, publishers say…hence,the blog. ttyl. kim 🙂
Very good article. I definitely love this website. Continue the good
work!
Thank you so much for your very kind words! I appreciate them a great deal. 🙂 Kim.
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Oh, you’re very kind. I wish I could read German….I’m sure I’d enjoy your blog. 🙂 Thank you for reading my posts. I appreciate it. 🙂 Kim.
When I originally left a comment I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new
comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment
is added I recieve four emails with the exact same
comment. Is there a means you can remove me from that service?
Kudos!
hmmm…I’m not great with blog settings, but I wonder if you tried unfollowing my blog, and then following again, if that might work? just a thought….let me know what happens, though. 🙂