Loose Leaves

Poem for a silenced Afghan voice: One of the events that attracted most participants in last weekend's DLR Poetry Now festival in Dún Laoghaire was the Sunday reading of work by poets "whose voices have been silenced by persecution, exile and imprisonment around the world".

One current and urgent case is that of a young Afghan journalist and writer, Parwash Kambakhsh, who has been sentenced to death in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan for allegedly having downloaded a text on the internet that the authorities there regarded as offensive to the Prophet Muhammad.

Kambakhsh, who was tried by court in the Balkh province, is the subject of the poem which appears today on page 11, "Perfume can pass through bars . . . " The poem was written by fellow Afghan poet and journalist Abdul Samay Hamed, who has been one of the most important voices on behalf of freedom of expression in Afghanistan. He was forced into exile by the Taliban in 1998, but returned home in 2002 to set up 10 publications, including a women's magazine and Salem, the first independent newspaper in Mazar-e Sharif.

Hamed, a member of International PEN, was asked to intervene on Kambakhsh's behalf. So far, he has managed to get him transferred from Mazar to Kabul, where he now awaits a new trial, and PEN is hoping for an acquittal. Hamed's poem, adapted to English from Afghan by Irish poet John F Deane, was read by Cork poet Thomas McCarthy as part of the PEN associated event in Dún Laoghaire.

Pat Boran joins illustrious list

Poet and editor Pat Boran was due to receive this year's Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the University of St Thomas Center for Irish Studies in St Paul, Minnesota, last night.

Boran is the 12th Irish poet to be given the honour and the latest on a distinguished list of winners that includes Dennis O'Driscoll, Eavan Boland, John F Deane, Peter Sirr, Frank Ormsby, Thomas McCarthy, Michael Coady, and Kerry Hardie. The $5,000 (€3,156) award is named after Lawrence O'Shaughnessy, who taught English at St Thomas from 1948 to 1950 and is the retired head of the IA O'Shaughnessy Foundation. Portlaoise-born Boran gave a reading on the university campus and also takes part in a public interview with American poet Jim Moore of Hamline University, Finding the Universal of the Local. Boran's collections include The Unwound Clock and New and Selected Poems.

Mahon's thoughts on modern verse

Poet Derek Mahon has made a welcome return to the reading circuit, and before a recent reading of very fine new work in Trinity College Dublin he recalled his tenure in the college in the 1980s as his "Educating Rita fellowship". He was, of course, referring to the movie made in Dublin in 1983 that gave starring roles to Julie Walters, Michael Caine and the Trinity campus, which was used to good effect and provided the college with a funding boost.

In the current issue of The Gloss magazine, he is asked what place he sees for poetry in contemporary Ireland and gives an answer many would agree with: "Perhaps it relates to silence - there is so much noise, so much going on, so much nonsense. So, if there is a room, a silent room where you can go and be out of the mainstream for a while . . . I see poetry like that. Maybe it has a purpose . . . and that's to be an alternative to post-modern life." Of his own work, he says he "hopes it is sometimes funny but basically quite serious". Which is exactly what his audience in Trinity was treated to.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times