My Weekend: Some weekends can simply be idled away daydreaming

Cork City Libraries have a new Eco Poet in Residence, Keith Payne, until Spring 2023. Keith will engage communities on the ecology of the city, natural and human, through poetry and creative thinking. This appointment is funded by Creative Ireland and will run until Spring 2023.

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I can tell you some of what I’m reading at the moment, which will say more about me than anything I could confess to: Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit; London Orbital: A Walk around the M25 by Iain Sinclair; The Kids by Hannah Lowe; Now we Can Talk Openly about Men and American Mules by Cork’s Martina Evans; also the latest collections by Cork poets Molly Twomey and Victoria Kennefick; Inland Notes, A beautifully hand-produced chapbook by Westmeath poet Jackie Gorman and Walls: A History of Civilisation in Blood and Brick by David Frye which was knocked off the shelf for me by the library angel only last week. And to keep the wheels turning, I’ve alway a ticket for John Kelly’s Mystery Train on Lyric FM, and on repeat this week is To Cry & Lee by Alabaster Plume who played at the Cork Jazz Fest. And naturally, The Echo over an Americano at Coffee Central in the English Market.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night? 

It really depends on the Friday … on the week that led up to it … on the velocity of the deadline torpedoing toward at me … But for a spell last winter, we’d put on the projector in the house. on Friday nights and watch old B & W flicks; Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra. Not a bad Friday night in.

Lie ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

I learned coming up to the birth of our son, when myself and Su were both waking up at 5am in the morning, that i’m best early in the morning. That’s when I write, still half asleep, with a coffee at my desk, just me and the seagulls skirling above, before the day starts squawking its busyness.

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Constantly. The joy of of being a poet is that you can stay in bed on a Friday morning to read if you feel like it (as I did this morning, reading Daniel Hahn’s Catching Fire, his translation diary), but that’s only because I worked all through the weekend. The distinction between weekday and weekend doesn’t really exist for most self-employed artists I know.

If money was no object where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

No further than into the north Portuguese Hills with Su and Teo, on the bike. There’s a spider’s web of small villages up there where you’ll always find a taverna with a warm welcome –come in said the spider, come in– the best roast chicken you’ve ever tasted, and a glass of vinho verde to keep it company.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries? 

Brendan Kennelly once said to me that after finishing a book, you’re deflated, spent, completely empty, and need to refill with whatever it is that puts the wind back in your sails. 

For me, it’s the coast, Atlantic preferably, a swim at any time of year and that sea salt wind smartening your face.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

Well, since weekends are often best for quiet work, and I’m gone from home a lot, the weekends are for time away from the machine, for gigs or launches, for time with Su and Teo; or weekends can simply be idled away daydreaming.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

… poetry readings - one of the great luxuries in life is to have someone read for you; heading out to the coast for a swim, or a walk if inclement weather; the cinema - I landed in Cork just as the IndieCork Festival was on and managed to see Theo Dorgan and Alan Gilsenan’s An Buachaill Geal Gáireach/ The Laughing Boy on the big screen, a powerfully moving documentary, and I was reminded yet again, that this is how films are meant to be experienced.

Entertain or be entertained? If it's the latter do you have a signature dish?

Entertain … friends, musicians, poets, talkers, chatters, natterers, raconteurs and roustabouts bursting around the table, spilling wine and sopping up the olive oil with hunks of bread torn from the loaf. Comments have been made on my tuna steaks … positive comments I hasten to add ... but only in the summer when the Atlantic tuna are running.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork - where are your go to spots for coffee/ lunch/ special meal?

I’m still discovering Cork, so that’s all ahead of me. But Saturday morning in plugd on the Coal Quay after shopping at the market, is just heaven as Jim the owner is an artful DJ who can read the mood perfectly and find just the right groove to set the needle on.

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

An essential part of discovering Cork, for discovering any place for me, is tramping, walking, wandering, roving and rambling about the place. North, south, east, west and the more hills the better, and Cork is one of the great walking cities. 

So you’ll find me somewhere out on the road Sunday evening, then maybe slipping in for a pint on the way back round, just to keep a-rambling.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

7:45.

Anything else you are up to right now… 

A hundred and one things; I’m into the arranging stages of my next collection; editing a special edition of contemporary Galician poetry in Translation for the online journal The High Window; waiting to clear space to get back to translating a collection by the poet Olga Novo; working up a pitch for a writing grant; programming poetry events for Vigo where I spend part of the year, scribbling notions for poems and essays i’ve a mind to write … reading, reading, reading … and the list goes on.