On The Town'There are some poets you can't crack," declared poet Rita Ann Higgins. But, she added, a new video aimed at Leaving Cert students "will go a long way in helping to deflate the lofty idea of the poet - when they [the students] see the cut of us".
The video, The Poets' Chair, which is a film archive of 18 contemporary Irish poets, will, she added, also help teachers deal with that perennial reaction from students: "It doesn't rhyme, Miss."
Some teachers told Higgins recently that the video, which is part of a National Poetry Archive, will be invaluable in the classroom.
Some of the featured poets, including Brendan Kennelly, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Rosita Boland, of The Irish Times, were there as the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, launched the film collection in the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre. Another featured poet, Gerald Dawe, recalled the afternoon of filming with Alan Titley last year. "It was a real revelation," he said. "I learned more about myself listening to his questions."
Titley, he added, "is one of the most important critical intelligences in the country, very, very alert to the Unterwelt of where you come from. There was a great inclusiveness in the way he addressed the issues of poetry, politics, the nuances in the relationships between home, current life . . . and the different kinds of English we speak in Ireland."
Another filmed poet was Galway-based Moya Cannon, who is originally from Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. Her last collection, Carrying the Songs, she explained, is pre-occupied largely "with language and time . . . and also the metaphors relate to landscape".
Schools interested in getting a copy of The Poets' Chair should e-mail management@poetryireland.ie