Critical Mick

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Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

Dark Horses Come Galloping Home

In earlier interviews, Kevin Stevens considered Irish poet Aidan Carl Mathews quiet good. John MacKenna recommended Billy Collins. Critical Mick was officially rumbled: I don't know a thing about verse. Pre-2006, Brendan Kennelly's Poetry My Arse was the most recent lyrical addition to my bookshelves. To cop a clue, a series of e-mails was exchanged with poet Eileen Casey in May 2006....

Critical Mick: The bio of your recent collection, Seagulls, lists a whole page of poetry awards. Is that how you got your start, by entering contests?

Eileen Casey: Yes. Contests are the life's blood of building up bio (see I'm already alliterating, can't help it! ).

CM: Other than contests, what venues exist today for poetry?

EC: There's lots of good literary outlets, Stinging Fly (I was published there ONCE so more sting than fly), Poetry Ireland and others of that ilk. We're really lucky here in Ireland I suppose, poetry outlets sprout like (magic) mushrooms. However, those rejections can often leave that terrible ‘hang-over' effect. Michael 0'Flanagan's Riposte (a poetry broadsheet) publishes EVERYONE, there's room for EVERYONE at Michael's table.

CM: Would you write even if there were no venues art all?

EC: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'd have to have a long think about that one. It'd be a bit like writing a letter and having no-one to send it to.

CM: SPECIAL INTERACTIVE SECTION OF THE INTERVIEW! Your earliest memory of poetry in as poetic recollection as you like. You have six minutes. Go!

EC: Gosh, panic, panic. Earliest memory, now let me see, where was it, must have been the ass who lived next door (four legged kind) who was used to bring home the turf. As a child I found his braying very poetic. Seriously, no mischief intended here. I liked that sound. It had a rhythm to it and also it was strange and exotic in the middle of the town. So yes, definitely it was the ass next door.

CM: Is it a poet's remit to craft something pure, insightful and interesting on demand?

EC: Well, we're not talking breast milk here! But, in rare moments, this is exactly what can happen ----with practise of course!

CM: Can poets really do that in six minutes?

EC: Yes.

CM: What's the most recent poem you've recommended? I mean, you called Seamus Heaney and said "Damn, you've got to read this! Isn't that fresh/ true/ intense/ clever?"

EC: "Waking in the Blue" by Robert Lowell. The title does it for me.

CM: Most recent one that made an impression on me was "Star-Splitters." "He charts his own Orion." Now that's a description of deciding on a tattoo!

EC: Better star than side I always think.

CM: The second most recent one are the lyrics that open an album by the Canadian band The Arcade Fire:

And if the snow buries my, my neighboorhood, And if my parents are crying Then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours, Yeah, a tunnel from my window to yours.

CM: Is that poetry or does the image not work without the music?

EC: Yes, in my opinion, this is poetry. Snow is so evocative and also paradoxical. Burying yet melting, very apt here, very sexy.

CM: OK, that's Canadian. What's waiting here in Ireland that's "Damn!" enough to reach even my rock & roll world?

EC: Paul Durcan rocks I suppose but you really need to hear him perform. You CAN'T go wrong with Heaney and of course Rita Ann Higgins is always worth a look.

CM: You've been active promoting newfound talent in Dublin. Tell me a little about that, your tutoring, and your work for VEC.

EC: I absolutely adore creative writing groups. Mainly because of those dark horses that come galloping home. Honestly, it's wonderful to hear those hooves in the least expected places.

CM: OK, we've been chatting about literary greats, ignoramus blokes, and up-and-comers. Do all these poets get their inspiration from the same place?

EC: Who knows?

CM: Let's get specific. How long did it take to write Seagulls? How did you write these poems in practice?

EC: I actually take care with my craft, no kidding. It takes me a good while to complete a poem because I write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and……………………………………..

CM: Let's zoom in even closer. What poem here has an interesting origin or inspiration you'd like to share?

EC: I'd say it's "Fire Fox" which began as a broken mirror, morphed into a horse who then became the Northern Lights which finally spawned a story about an arctic fox.

CM: Do you write every day?

EC: Most days (I'm always preaching regular writing routine so I'll leave it at that!).

CM: Do you carry a notebook?

EC: No. My head and my heart are my notebooks.

CM: What are you working on now?

EC: Fiction, would you believe. A story with the working title "Ghosts."

CM: I understand you recently had a moment that was straight out of The Commitments.

EC: Yes. I had invited an American poet to my last reading/launch. I also had an extensive promotional vehicle on the march. So, there we are, all expectation and……………the lady doesn't show. I call it my Wilson Pickett moment because half of me (my heart) wants to believe that she DID show up when we'd all gone home.

CM: OK, parading out the usual chestnuts: What's your opinion on the new technologies like Internet communities, webzines, Printing on Demand?

EC: As I'm an addictive personality I can't really go there……………much!

CM: What's on your nightstand at the moment? (books I mean, not clock radios)

EC: Father & I by Carlo Gebler (it's wonderful). Also, a clock (without the radio), my art nouveau lamp, my soap dish (?), my telephone (with a crackling wire), my lipstick (well, you never know) and lots of other miscellaneous items.

CM: Anything I've not brought up that you'd like to chat about?

EC: No Mick, you are pretty thorough. I'm really glad I got to say what's on my nightstand. Could be a poem there in the making. Don't you agree?

CM: SPECIAL INTERACTIVE SECTION #2! Finish this non-clock radio related poem:

CM: Many thanks, Eileen! I wish you the best with Seagulls and with your career.

EC: Thanks!

Copies of Seagulls are currently available at €10. Eileen Casey can be contacted care of Fiery Arrow Press, 16 Watermeadow Park, Old Bawn, Tallaght, Dublin 24.

Yo! This interview transcript and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2006 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

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This Page Was Last Updated On 31 May, 2006.