Words on Fire
Writing, & therefore Literature, was brought into being in Sumer, world’s first empire, world’s first organ of organised massacre, about 3000BC, to account the wealth of the ruling class, & to provide them with the lies & the eloquence to charm & manipulate the wider populace. The Irish State, a descendant of Sumer like all […]
Read More SUMER’S RETURN – PHASE THREE OF THE IRISH STATE’S APPROACH TO LITERATURE.The arrival of Philip in Hell triggered some troubling reflections on the part of the real Prince on the increasingly urgent matters of categorization & accommodation in his majestic domain. Charlemagne had already said Philip was not welcome in the section reserved for European royalty & their associated bad bastards. ‘No-one can stand the cnut […]
Read More RENOVATIONS IN HELL. #princephillip #twIt happened as of a sudden that The Fish got totally fed up of the horizontal plane & decided trying out being An Upright Fish for a while. & if you saw The Upright Fish as it funnelled itself up from the utterdark of the lower depths through ever brightening ultramarine towards the open air […]
Read More THE UPRIGHT FISHThe image above shows a map of Ireland in 2100 under a highly optimistic 2C rise scenario. 3-5C is much more likely, but heh let’s be hopeful. I look at the map & it reminds me of my favourite joke – Q: How do you make God laugh? A: Tell her your plans. At present […]
Read More TOPOGRAPHICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF A UNITED IRELAND?Out of the seven signatories to The Proclamation, five were Bardic artists. Pearse, Mcdonogh, Plunkett were poets of the bookish sort, Connolly wrote performance poems & ballads, Ceannt was a renowned on the Uillean Pipes – an instrument of poetic miltancy if ever there were one. It is no wonder then that The Proclamation is […]
Read More THE RISING OF THE BARDSReturn is the demonic opposite of resurrection. Whereas resurrection transforms, return repeats. Not once or twice, but indefinitely in a process which demeans existence – first as tragedy, second as farce, thereafter over & over as farcical tragedy. Human existence, as lived by humans in our day, is a succession of phenomenon we have already […]
Read More RETURN OR RESURRECTION?WHAT happened to Christ on Holy Saturday as he lay dead between The Crucifixion & The Resurrection is known as The Harrowing of Hell. Christ descends into Hell, where all dead pre-christian humans since the beginning of time have been stored, to divide them into the damned and the saved and lead the Righteous in […]
Read More THE HARROWING OF HELL – why Panti Bliss is going to Heaven, & David Quinn is not.There are four deaths recounted in the Bible in the story of Good Friday. Jesus own death. The implied death’s of Good & Bad, the two flanking thieves. & the suicide of Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Jewish Priests & Elders on Spy Wednesday in return for 30 pieces of silver, & on Holy […]
Read More GOOD FRIDAY’S OTHER MARTYR – JUDASA young Irish woman is making a name for herself as a sassy online outlaw in wake of endangering lives for a prolonged period on the motorways around Dublin. The tabloids have gone along with & encouraged the fast-developing show, & she is making a few bob out of an onlyfans account. Nowhere near as […]
Read More THE BALLAD OF THE OUTLAW GEMMA GREENEThe air of optimism re Covid currently being projected by our Govt, our media, & our pharisees (excuse me, I meant to say ‘experts’) is wishful thinking. Global cases rose by 15% last week. Health systems are on the verge of collapse across the Global South, notably Brazil. Panicked ministers across the European continent are […]
Read More FALSE DAWNThe Triumph of Death First the skeletons marched on our rivals & we couldn’t have been more uplifted – look at all the effort they are saving us! Then when the skeletons rounded on artists & outlaws we spoke from both sides of our mouths, abandoning compassion & truth. Our backs were turned. Our hearts […]
Read More THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH“There were fairies in Ireland then, & I grew up there, thinking that fairy life was something that was inseparable from Irish life. Fairy stories would be told that were to me & to those around me as much realities of Irish life as are the stories that I now read in books called Realities […]
Read More THE VIRGIN MARY & THE WRECK OF THE GALLEONThe other day I passed an unfortunate person I used to know a few years ago on the live arts scene. They didnt recognise me or pretended not to – i don’t mind that, i often do that myself if I’m not in the form for people. Sometimes I wish everybody else would do it […]
Read More FAILURE AS AN ART FORM OF OUR TIMESIt is 1984 & I am 9 & in a small bedroom in my neighborhood belonging to my hero, alongside him & a few of his friends, who are all about 13. My hero is great at soccer & fighting, though he sometimes loses at both & always has a purple eye or a scabby […]
Read More THE BLOODING #childhood #initiationFinished wankin.Out of everythin.Tossin & turnin& goofin on the Ket. Let’s go find a targeton the internet. Me ex detests me.Me kids won’t see me.Friends with no-one,& everyone wants me bet. Let’s go spray me brainshiton the internet. I do me own research.Click click click til I find what hurts,launch it on me profilelike a […]
Read More BOLLOCKSONARO AKA THE PAYTRIOT AKA THE RUBBER GOON AKA KETMAN21. #worldantiracismdayFIGHT THE FAR RIGHT – KEEP IRELAND BEAUTIFUL & FREE Evil people, capitalising on Govt incompetence & understandable frustration with the lockdown, plan to hijack our national day today & capture the headlines for their cocaine-fuelled riots, copied from British fascists; for the hatespeech they import from Alabama; for anti-lockdown & anti-worker misinformation cooked up […]
Read More FIGHT THE FAR RIGHT – KEEP IRELAND BEAUTIFUL & FREE #paddysdaySPITTING ON ANOTHER MASTER’S GRAVE #nationalschool #1980s #smalltownireland It was bright October in our holy school & the dazzle of afternoon was sowinglight-headedness throughoutour classroom. Even the master was smiling.Smiling at us with amused eyes& telling some rambling talefrom a campfire of his youth,the same one he recountedwhenever a smile spread across his face like […]
Read More SPITTING ON ANOTHER MASTER’S GRAVE #nationalschool #1980s #smalltownirelandThe Doors The detective calls door-to-door investigating a killing so brilliantly simple it could have been committed by anyone who can ring a doorbell. Over three twelve-hour days, 676 doors. The same questions in the same order at every door, asked of a man or a woman, or a man and a woman. Aside from […]
Read More OUR PRIVATE ESTATE | DAVE LORDANIn the middle of the night the county manager called to my door. I murdered him with the ceremonial dagger I always bring when answering my door, whether or no it is in the middle of the night. I stabbed him in the voice-box. It was an efficient kill, then, although also, with hindsight, in […]
Read More The County Manager #truecrimeDINOSAURS? Not yet, but I wouldn’t rule it out with all the inbreeding. #royalfamily There are 600 title-holding aristocratic families in the UK, sharing 2000 titles between them, each worth an average of 16 million pounds sterling to its holder. The monarchy alone cost the Uk Treasury 67 million pounds sterling in 2020. I can […]
Read More DINOSAURS?On International Women’s day I’d like to celebrate some of my favourite Irish Women Writers. The intersection of class prejudice and patriarchy in Ireland’s literature industry means the perspective of middle and upper class women has always dominated in our publishing industry, leaving out the stories and perspectives of the majority of women in ireland, […]
Read More RECOMMENDING IRISH WOMEN WRITERS WITH A DIFFERENCE(i.m Bobby Sands who began Hunger Strike against the British Empire on March 1st 1981.) This is my body my pale body my hairy body my stinking body my body with its moles and leaks my body with its scars and sores and sweats my body with its itches and its aches my longing body […]
Read More THE HUNGER STRIKER SINGS HIS DEATH #bobbysandsFollowing on from current workshop with the designer Shane Sutton, Irish National Opera and the Civic are delighted to launch another series of weekly workshops taking place in March with the writer Dave Lordan. These workshops are perfect for any adults looking for something new and creative to try out in their evenings. Participation is […]
Read More FREE CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS WITH THE CIVIC THEATRE AND THE IRISH NATIONAL OPERAOh it all might seem funny, between the exorcisms & the magic ointments, & to an extent it is. It’s funny but it’s also scary. It’s scary that the Examiner – normally the most trustworthy of the the Irish dailies – calls these gangsters nuns & refers to them as Sr in captions. In fact, […]
Read More Why are these walking chemical weapons allowed roam free in West Cork?Please find below pdf & word versions of my pamphlet On Being An Irish Working Class Writer Buy me a coffee @ paypal.me/DaveLordan Excerpt….. PART 1 On the same Easter Week of the 1916 rising, a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition was held in Dublin. Chaplin, well-known to be a socialist as well as the world’s […]
Read More On Being An Irish Working Class Writer – pamphletVOLUNTEER EDWARD O BRIEN AND THE HYPOCRISY OF PIRA COMMEMORATIONS. Following a campaign by Fine Gael and their media supporters, Sinn Fein have cancelled a commemoration for PIRA Volunteer Edward O Brien, who ‘accidentally’ suicide bombed a London Bus in 1994, killing himself and injuring several others. A massacre was narrowly avoided. There is simply […]
Read More VOLUNTEER EDWARD O BRIEN AND THE HYPOCRISY OF PIRA COMMEMORATIONS.NEW TEACHING ADVENTURE ❤️😊👇🏻 This morning I lead my first workshop of a six-week course in Storytelling & Local Folklore with Bray Area Partnership, which is free to participants as part of Co Wicklow’s Resilience program Stories & Lore keep alive what would otherwise irrevocably vanish from human memory & collective experience. This morning’s intro […]
Read More NEW TEACHING ADVENTUREAT OSCAR WILDE’S GRAVE Who stole the angel’s glory?Still, you’ve got the rarest grave in Pére Lachaise, Granite teeming with lipstick kisses,A shoal of petals in a mountain lake,A cloud burst of tropical fish,And taped to a withering rose there’s a note:Thank you for teaching me that I was good. I kiss the teacher tooFor […]
Read More AT OSCAR WILDE’s GRAVE #poetry #lgbtq #freedomBLACK TABLETS There are no black ones. There are speckled and striped, marbled and toned, stamped and engraved. There are yellows and purples and reds, whites and blues and maroons. Cylindrical greens, bullet shaped browns, blue UFO’s . Depending who’s asking the question I’ll call them the duchesses’ pearls, I’ll call them my coral medallions, […]
Read More BLACK TABLETS #meds #mentalillness #poetryHer name was Kate. She lived in Leap. She was rather posh. She had at least one horse. Horses are peculiar enough in that you find them at both ends of the social scale, kept by the highest & lowest orders of households. I had some friends in Clonakilty & around it who had horses, […]
Read More FIRST LOVE….#valentines #memoirThe hass came here by hair to this wee-poohlick of Earland by wine-air. Some har hangry. Some sleepings sand tart. Mostly iss they hokey. Edgar most older he iss the musical of Alicante and he play violin for the dead peoples in the cemetary See!! Iss true, why no? Iss really true really. See […]
Read More SPANISH ELEMENTARIES #TEFL #TEACHER #POETRYTmro the shakes on the laying of bricks& a smithereened mind no plus-pill will fix but now he’s Buddha x’ed with Aleister Crowley migrating spacetime, metamorphing the settee: blink it’s a longboat aflame on the Volga,blink again it’s a throne for an alien Pasha! Tmro is nothing but migraine and pukingand the lads all day […]
Read More THE SHAMAN OF CHARLESLAND #poem #drugsYes. I admit it. I’m one of those thunderin snowflakes You’re always gabbin on about. Sure, I’m only half a man Compared to you. I’m lightweight & I’m blown about All over the gaff. Fair enough. It’s as you say. No kind of warrior am I atall. I’’ll melt away in one degree of heat […]
Read More SNOWFLAKEA selection of recent Twitter posts showing the variety of what I do as a working poet. Writing, teaching, broadcasting, performing etc. Commissions welcome – if you need me for any of the above email dlordan@hotmail.com
Read More WHAT I DO AS A WORKING POETLORDAN’s LIT ON DISCORD I’ve set up a server on Discord to share, discuss, & teach literature & multimedia creativity. It’s a handier & more focused layout than Facebook & allows for higher quality participation. Invite link below – join in if you are interested. https://discord.gg/hwKnTTay
Read More LORDAN’s LIT on DISCORDToday is BANDCAMP FRIDAY, when all proceeds from albums and audiobooks go straight to the artist. Why not purchase and enjoy one or two of my soundscaped audiobooks, and contribute towards costs of making more! Choose from sci-fi, psychedelic memoir, & poetry with a diference…. check out my store here
Read More BANDCAMP FRIDAY #fiction #memoir #poetry #audiobooksAfter the hours retracingBloody Sunday’s route with thirty thousand,from the Creggan Height right down to the basin of the Foyle,through all those ordinary, downtrodden, every-streets to Free Derry Corner.After the speeches, the clapping, the marching bands, the mourning,the silence, the wind in the flags; after the names were joined-Derry, Palestine, Afghanistan-time came for five to […]
Read More DRIVING HOME FROM DERRY (2002)bloodysunday #derry #Palestine #neverforget #solidarityFran glimpses Mac the Handsome for the last time from a packed 145 moving, in fits and starts, through traffic-choked Donnybrook. A Spring afternoon in 2009; it has just stopped drizzling & to avoid gawking at the passengers opposite him, Fran sleeves the human moisture from the window and, to see what he can see, […]
Read More THE ONLY REAL IRISH POET IN DUBLIN #truestory #MurderCase #irishwriters #irishpoets #irishspokenwordI’m going to be working on an opera! The Irish National Opera is going to create the world’s first ‘Virtual Reality Community Opera’, scripted by 14-18 year olds. I’m running four workshops as part of the project, which will generate the bedrock of writing from which a libretto will then be refined. Open to 14-18 […]
Read More OPERA WRITING WORKSHOPS FOR 14-18 yosIn the midst of the chaos my father and his friends decided to set up a roadblock at the entrance to the estate. After a quarter of an hour the police came along but they were fired at and they retreated in no time. They came back an hour later with many reinforcements but my […]
Read More Street Party #socialcollapse #chaos #truestoryThe motorcyclists were the first to attack, just as it was getting dark, just as the bats were beginning to whirl out of their daytime redoubts in the woods, diving and wheeling like Stukas in the grounds. Often, in the past, when things had been different, a bat had flown in through a window or […]
Read More THE WRITERS RETREAT #truestory #scandalDEFINITION OF A RUNNER #truestory #irishtaliban #seizechurchproperty #motherandbabyhomes Do you know what A Runner is in Ireland, where I’m from, in the year that I was born? A Runner is what the other children call a child, a boy or a girl,who keeps trying to run awayfrom the institution where they are being held prisoner […]
Read More DEFINITION OF A RUNNER #churchabuse #catholictalibanPlease join me tmro evening at link below for a live online reading of poems on the theme of religious oppression in Ireland that I have written over the last 3 decades. https://fb.me/e/UDcM7UFA
Read More FOR THE TUAM BABIES #poetry“If you cannot find your way& you live nowhere each dayDig your roots and culture man”Benjamin Zepheniah, Roots & Culture Following their comprehensive victory over the Spanish-Irish Alliance at Kinsale in 1601, assisted by the traitor Earl Donogh O Brien, the Crown forces wished to press home their advantage & turn rout into annihilation. They […]
Read More EXTERMINATE THE HARPERS AND THE BARDS – HEATHER HUMPHREYS’ NEW DECREE