Poetry Reading by Brendan Kennelly in Athens

Brendan Kennelly '95 Photo by Hartmut Schulz

Reading by Brendan Kennelly

Out of his book: Judas – the betrayal of dreams

This special event of poetry reading by Brendan Kennelly closed the conference ‘Myth of the City” dealing with problems of life in cities. 15 poets and 15 planners, architects, philosophers etc. had travelled together through Crete (9.9 – 15.9.95) to discuss in different places (technological innovation parks, villages, university centres) how to link culture and planning. Since poetry includes materials poems are made of, including various myths, they can entail precise descriptions of what citizens face in urban environments. Upon cities are imprinted the technological and economic developments. Thus to see and to understand better living conditions in cities, the "myth of the city" envisioned a dialogue between poets and city planners in order to leae behind respective viewpoints reflecting merely a growing specializations and therefore a lack of a cultural synthesis enabling both physical and socio-cultural descriptions to be valid side by side. There are too many things happening nowadays in urban reality that only one viewpoint could do justice to the complexity mankind goes through.

Brendan Kennelly is one of the key poets who seeks to link questions about mythology to what is happening in a city like Dublin. He is one of Ireland’s most distinguished poets, and at the same time lecturer and broadcaster. He achieved international recognition with his epic poems Cromwell and The Book of Judas. He has published over 20 books of poetry, including A Time for Voices and Breathing Spaces. He has written as well four powerful theatrical plays on women’s themes, two novels and a substantial body of literary and poetic criticism. He is a renowned editor and anthologist as well as Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College in Dublin. He has just published a book on Poets and their Language.

Brendan Kennelly understands poetry as questioning the self with the help of the imagination. He tries to do so by learning to listen to voices usually not heard, including children living permanently in the streets of Dublin. Thus it is hardly surprising that he says in the introduction to his epic poem 'Judas': “It is hard to listen to someone’s voice which by education has been taught not to listen to.” Brendan Kennelly sees that not only external forms of betrayal are overlooked due to this kind of education, but also because internal forms permit betrayals committed by oneself against the self. Given this knowledge, he concludes about those living in cities, that “that the damned are convincing and urbane!” He says this with a deep humanistic compassion. It allows him to understand 'man and the city' – and this with a good touch of Irish humour!

Some comments by Hatto Fischer (15.4.2010)

The poetry reading astonished everybody for Brendan Kennelly dared to question himself further and deeper like nobody else. Not many people dare than to do the same. The only exception may be Vincent Van Gogh who dared to look at himself so deeply until he saw 'nothingness'.

In discussion with Sandrine Bizzet who is writing a biography about Brendan Kennelly we touched upon this one startling point the poet revealed at that time in Athens. He told people listening that one thing he had realized is that there is no point to running through life with a dagger as if ready to stab someone else. He reaccounted that his daughter had been rapped at the age of sixteen and that he knew the man. This knowledge he kept for himself until one day he saw the man standing on the other side of the square. Brendan went over to him and after having sat down quietly beside that man, he looked up at him and said simply: "hello".

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Poetry Reading by Brendan Kennelly in Athens