Reading in Athens Sept. 16, 1995

This special event of poetry reading by Brendan Kennelly closes the conference Myth of the City 1995 which dealt with problems of life in European cities. 30 poets and architects, planners, philosophers and historians came together in Crete (9.9 - 15.9.95) for the purpose to link the domains of culture, including mythology, to more technological and economic features of urban society.

Brendan Kennelly has been one of the key poets to link the questions about mythology to that of the city. He is one of Ireland's most distinguished poets, lecturer and broadcasters. He achieved international recognition with The Cromwell poems and the epic poem Judas. He has published over 20 books of poetry, including A time for Voices and Breathing Spaces, and has also written four powerful verse plays on women's themes, as well as two novels and a substantial body of criticism. He is a renowned editor and anthologist, and Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Currently he has just published a book on Poets and their Language.

Brendan Kennelly understands poetry as a means of questioning the self with the help of the imagination and in so doing to learn to listen to especially those voices which are seldom heard. About his epic poem JUDAS, he says: "it is hard to listen to someone's voice which by education has been taught not to listen to", but to hate! The consequence of such an education is that not only external forms of betrayal are overlooked, but equally those committed by oneself against the self. "After such knowledge," he concludes that "the dammed are convincing and urbane." He says that with a deep humanistic and passionate understanding of man - and with a good touch of Irish humour!

Hatto Fischer

16 September 1995

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Reading in Athens Sept. 16, 1995