I was at Woodstock you know, seven times.
Not the festival in the field of mud, I mean
The Savoy Cinema, Galway. Closed now.
first in the queue and stayed in to watch the repeats,
dodging the Usherette from Alcatraz with her sweeping searchlight.
For a time after, I turned ciotog,
playing guitar upside-down,
milk all over the table, writing a scribble.
Doomed to failure of course but at least I got to let my
hair grow long. That was the deal if I gave up.
Now that six has turned out to be nine after all,
here I am, flopped belly-up in sullen suburbia,
bald patch burning in the sun, reading two books
and the Sunday newspapers � finishing nothing.
I pull the safety clip from another can of bud
and watch a dragon-fly hover by the shrubbery,
almost expecting to hear a tiny rat-tat-tat as it
rakes the undergrowth with machine-gun fire before
nosing off across the jungle to the neighbour�s patch.
Later, as the sun goes down, and I�m picking tortured
beer-cans from off the lawn, I hear it, swooping and diving
over the rooftops of our quiet cul-de-sac,
The Star Spangled Banner, twisted notes spitting defiance,
B 52s in the skies overhead.
� Gerry Hanberry
Reproduced with permission
�Rough Night�, Gerard Hanberry�s first collection of poetry was published in May 2002 by Stonebridge Publications, Ebbw Vale, Wales.
A second collection �Something Like Lovers� was published in October 2005 also by Stonebridge. Publications. In summer 2004 Gerard won the Brendan Kennelly Sunday Tribune Poetry Award. Gerard Hanberry�s poetry has been published widely in many literary journals and newspapers and as been shortlisted for many of Ireland�s top poetry prizes including a Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Award in 2000, Strokestown 2003 and RTE�s Rattlebag Poetry Slam 2003, he was runner-up in the Firewords City Poetry Award (Galway) 2005. In 2000 Gerard won the Originals Short Story prize in Listowel Writers Week. He has been invited to read at many literature festivals and been broadcast on Lyric FM, Galway Bay F.M., Cape Cod Radio in US and RTE�s Rattlebag, Sunday Miscellany and The Enchanted Way. Gerard has also worked in journalism and for many years in the 1980�s and early 90�s wrote a weekly column for the Galway Observer under the name �Joe Barry�. These days he teaches English at Saint Enda�s College, Salthill. A performing musician in the singer/songwriter tradition, he gigs regularly around the West of Ireland playing �classic acoustic� songs. Gerard has a First Class Honours MA in Writing from NUI, Galway and runs a weekly �creative reading� workshop in Galway Arts Centre called �exploring contemporary poetry�. To read a selection of Gerard�s musically influenced poems on the Showcase section of this site, click here
