Skip to main content

Irish Obama

There's something immensely moving about the way the world is being lifted by the Irish Spring that is Obama's election victory. And now, a hit song about Obama being Irish.
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
That's probably because we wished he was here to sort out the mess in Ireland... If Obama ever visits us get ready for the Kennedy comparisons... oh dear
Sun Nov 09, 06:00:00 pm 2008
Riley J. said…
forgive me but I guess I don't get it. =/
Mon Nov 10, 04:21:00 pm 2008
Coirí Filíochta said…
I found this Live version being sung in an Irish pub in California by a Dublin singer, two months ago, and it is far more attractive because it is being sung without musical backing, live in the original sean nos form (old style)and i instinctively knew when i saw the opening shot of a text taking pride of place in the pub, a copy of the forward to James Connolly's 1917 book, Songs of Freedom, which he launched in New York 101 years ago -- this song weaves into a deeper psychic undercurrent and poetic proof i have hit ollamh.

At that time in my learning, after seven years studying Gaelic texts in translation that constituted the course work of real life bards, i had just grasped the significance of the three methods of extemporised composition which were took on by the trainee filidh poets, in the eighth year of study. Imbas foronsai - manifestation of good knowledge which illuminates - which is like the Frost notion of turning up on the page not knowing what will be created, and at the end of the extemprised session, some knowledge we have not articulated and firm in the consciousness, articulates itself via the medium of ourselves, into print. Like Columbo at the end of the show drawing all the strands of his plodding into a coherent accurate narrative of events, getting at the truth of things. The prophetic side of a poets practice, in efect. And this live version, infused Hope into me, as the wording is flawless, the metrical structure of the names, O'Leary, O'Reily, O'Hare and O'Hara, there's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama -- there is some deeply poetic yet invisible proof that, yes, yes, this is right, and now i can come out of the woods and show my hand, cheerlead for this man. For myself first i might add, as riding this wave of Hope, prior to him winning, could only be just a decision to err on the side of Hope.

I reasoned that the guy being far more eloquent and cleverer than his opponents, once in the hot seat, what has happened, would happen. Whilst not explicitly prophecying he would get in, i did all i could as a cheerleader to effect this outcome, Live Version

love and peace
Thu Nov 13, 05:48:00 pm 2008
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more