Desire to create

Poet puts emotions on the line
By Martin Russell
Irish American Post Book Editor

Describing Mary O'Malley's literary output is like attempting to pack sardines into a tin. There's always so much and so little space. The Moycullen (Co. Mayo) native is the featured poet at this year's Milwaukee Irish Fest, with what seems to be ton of books as well as an extensive presence in anthologies to her voluminous credit. 

"I started writing by translating poems from Irish into English. Badly, I imagine. But I still find the process fascinating and useful," O'Malley explained. The oldest of 10 children and daughter of a fisherman, she started writing because of the sea and because "I was a fearful, turbulent child, utterly without confidence but with great desire. A terrible combination," she said.

"Pinsky's The Want Bone explains that desire to create, as does Neruda's La Poesia," she went on.

O"Malley's most recent book of poems, Asylum Road, was released this spring by Salmon Publishing. It is a selection of writings dealing with the new Ireland, which the poet asserted is a multicultural, multiracial country ripe for a re-imagined constititution. Other books with Salmon include A Consideration of Silk (1990), Where the Rocks Float (1993) and Knife in the Water (1997).

Her writings in periodicals is also impressive: The Sunday Tribune, Poetry Ireland Review, Ireland's Women, Atlanta Review, Lapis Magazine and numerous others. She has also been able to regularly visit the States via government sponsored Arts Flights. "This has given me a new audience for my work in terms of listeners and publications. It is of great benefit for me to travel. And without assistance from the Arts Council, this is entirely beyond my means," she indicated.

 "I have been to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig several times," she said, describing how the visits always seemed to be "at crucial stages in the development of a collection."

She's earned numerous awards for her work, including the notable Hennessey Award in 1990 and election to Aosdana, the prestigious Irish arts organization. "These have been important to me creatively and in terms of self-respect," she affirmed. These honors, combined with bursary amounts from the Arts Council, "have bought me time to write and the right to do so above anything else. On occasion, they have enabled me to continue in very bleak times," she indicated. 

O'Malley writes on a desk at her home, during morning and nights "now that the children are older," she said of her creative processes. When she isn't writing, O'Malley loves reading Latin American and European poets, as well as a few American and British authors. Among her favorites, in addition to Pinsky and Neruda, are Adrienne Rich, Czeslaw Miloz and Rosario Castellanos.

"A poet needs time, humility and courage to be true to the song in the blood. And the courage to sing it," O'Malley suggested.

Reading to the public is one of her most favored activities, where she enjoys the give-and-take feedback with an audience. In addition to the bookstore and the university lecture circuit, O'Malley has been on the venue of the Galway Arts Festival, which is 10 miles from her home, as well as at the Sligo Arts Centre. She might even pop up with a book of poems for a read at Bewley's Cafe in Dublin. 

A trip to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, was particularly invigorating. There, she was on a program with other notables such as Robert Haas, Brigid Pegeen Kelly and Czeslaw Milosz, as well as a passle of local writers whose enthusiasm and attraction to words was a treasure.

While on Inishmore, she advised youngsters to write in Irish. "I have just finished reading a large number of poems from the island and found the standard is quite high. Our relationship there is quite informal and I will continue it for as long as I have energy," she laughed.

O'Malley regularly broadcasts over RTE and writes occasional theater reviews and features for the Irish Times. She's planning to do an overview story on Irish Fest for that newspaper while in Milwaukee.

But life as a poet means more than accepting adulation, penning verses under some bough with a loaf of bread, wine and a special thou. It sometimes means getting outside the comfort box.

For instance, O'Malley was writer-in-residence at the Verbal Arts Centre in the tough Waterside area of Derry from February to May, 1995. From her work there, she produced Close Encounters of the Worthwhile Kind (Western Health Board, 1995) and The Waterside Book (Verbal Arts Centre, 1995), using her material and that of many workshop participants.

"I considered this time to be my greatest challenge. My brief was to go to the mainly loyalist communities and encourage them or engender writing," she said of her time in the North. She encountered occasional restraint from many of the grownups but was met with "delight and enthusiasm" among the children and young adults.

From there, she moved on to work in schools and youth clubs in Catholic and integrated areas and was able to make small headway in dealing with the adults. "Best of all, I fell in love with Derry," she said.

Obviously not a woman to remain at home by the hearth, she has racked up visits to Yale, the San Francisco Book Fair, Swarthmore, the University of Michigan and even an appearance at the Presbyterian Church in Milford, Mich., courtesy of writer friend Thomas Lynch. Paris, Copenhagen and Jonjoping, Sweden — as well as at a conference of Latin women in Barcelona — have been among her other poetic stops.

"I've read with the National Chamber Choir and for Irish President Mary Robinson a number of times, including at the opening of the Women's Study Centre at University College-Galway," she said, indicating how she regularly presents her works accompanied by musicans such as Davy Spillane, Sharon Shannon, the Voice Squad and Maighread Ni Dhomnhniall.

As they say in the poetic world, "Whew!"
 
 

Mary O'Malley will be reading her works at the Milwaukee Irish Fest Hedge School on the south end of the Henry W. Maier Lakefront Festival grounds in the cultural area at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 17; 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18; and at 4:30 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 19. Following her talk Sunday, the festival's Donn Goodwin Poetry Prize will be awarded at 5:30 p.m.