What is this tyranny of head that stifles / The eyes, the senses, / All play on the strings of the heart.

November 4, 2011 3:36 PM

Did you know the recently elected president of Ireland is actually a noted poet? [The Guardian] Here is another of his works. The Guardian's own Carol Rumens is not a fan.
posted by Fizz (15 comments total)

He was lucky Seán Gallagher applied his creativity to his accounting.
posted by Abiezer at 3:45 PM on November 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

There is also an interesting piece on the president in the Irish Times.

I always loved the Michael D poetry skits on Gift Grub (as part of a radio show, a comedian pretends to be Michal poet, and recites amusing poetry.)
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 3:55 PM on November 4, 2011

I gotta say, his poetry doesn't really do much for me. There's not really any surprises in perspective or tone, it just kinda sounds like reasonably well constructed college-level stuff.
posted by chimaera at 4:29 PM on November 4, 2011

Roses are red,
violets are blue,
we're giving away 700 Million euros to bankers,
everyone else,
fuck you.
posted by Grimgrin at 4:47 PM on November 4, 2011 [9 favorites]

So he beat the Inanimate Carbon Rod then?
posted by fshgrl at 5:19 PM on November 4, 2011

Rumens is incorrect; he is a poet, just not a very skilled one.
posted by everichon at 5:39 PM on November 4, 2011

The four lines about the journey of the Hero see the driver of this poetic vehicle overturned in a ditch, wheels spinning.

Ok, so Rumens is something of a poet herself.
posted by everichon at 5:40 PM on November 4, 2011

He's no Václav Havel, but then, few of us are.

Only one of us, in fact.
posted by IAmBroom at 5:48 PM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Guardian notices Ireland exist: that is indeed a marvel for the ages.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 5:50 PM on November 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

"Healing," when it's used in the pop-psychology sense, is a word should be kept out of poems.

That sentence could use some healing.

(If you can't decide between that and which, just pick one at random. Unresolved indecisiveness results in sentences don't make sense.)
posted by Sys Rq at 6:19 PM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

When you look at what Higgins has fought for throughout his academic and political career it's hard not to see him as the man so many people hoped Barack Obama would be. Sez the Saw Doctors: you've got Michael D rocking in the Dáil Áras an Uachtaráin.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 7:09 PM on November 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

(If you can't decide between that and which, just pick one at random. Unresolved indecisiveness results in sentences don't make sense.)

This is my mindset whenever I walk into a voting booth.
posted by Fizz at 4:58 AM on November 5, 2011

He was lucky Seán Gallagher applied his creativity to his accounting.

We were all lucky.

Especially me, as I put 35 euro on MDH at 2/1 back in July. Finally the politicians are giving something back.
posted by Elmore at 12:07 PM on November 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

He Taught me Sociology (I was in UCG for the Degree).
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:49 PM on November 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I gotta agree with that journalist. His poetry stinks. He's too self conscious.
posted by Ted Walther at 11:01 PM on November 6, 2011