15th September 2021
As part the Poetry Town Initiative led by Poetry Ireland, Poet Laureate Kate Newmann presented her crafted poem for the people of Ballycastle at an event at Sheskburn Recreation Centre on Saturday 11th September.
Ballycastle is the only town in Northern Ireland selected to participate in the all-island literature initiative which appointed a Poet Laureate to all twenty towns.
Provided in partnership with Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Flowerfield Arts Centre and Quotidian, Poetry Town has a feast of literary activities from 10-18 September.
Read Kate's beautiful poem below:
YOU CAN TAKE THE WOMAN OUT OF BALLYCASTLE BUT
That turn off the main road when the lighthouse beam
from Rathlin tells you where and who you are.
All-Day Breakfast and a bottle of Pinot Noir.
Great hugs from people who can greet you right.
Mist on Fairhead, out-of-season café,
a chip paper flapping like gull’s wing.
Armando’s ice cream and Armando’s ice cream.
A small child under a huge sky.
Sand, pebbles, tides teaching their own unstoppable.
The long-dead feeling our footfall on self-heal, sphagnum.
Solstice light aligning, shining into the deepest chamber of the heart.
Falling asleep outside to the soporific breath
of monkshood and old-fashioned roses.
Easter lilies rising up above all the flowers in Miss Thompson’s garden.
Two boys finding the flight and the fall and the flight
in the Lammas Fair swingboat. Long before
one was swallowed by his own Slough na Mora.
The boat to Rathlin – out of this world.
YOU CAN’T TAKE BALLYCASTLE OUT OF THE WOMAN
