Language, Idea, Metaphor, Myth: Poetry by Adam Wyeth | S5 Ep10

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OUR STORY

We find our way into the mythic imagination and Irish mythology through a selection of poems from award-winning poet, playwright and essayist Adam Wyeth.

OUR GUEST

Adam Wyeth is the critically acclaimed author of five books published with leading Irish publisher, Salmon Press. He is an Associate Artist of the Civic Theatre, Dublin. In 2019 he received The Kavanagh Fellowship Award.

Adam’s debut collection, Silent Music was Highly Commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. His second book, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic Mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry, (Foreword by Paula Meehan) contains poems from Ireland’s leading poets followed by essays that unpack and explore Celtic mythological references in each work. His poetry collection The Art of Dying was published in 2016, and was named as an Irish Times Book of the Year.

Adam’s plays have been performed across Ireland and in New York and Berlin. His play, This Is What Happened was published by Salmon in 2019. His latest book about:blank is an experimental hybrid piece, mixing poetry, prose and dramatic text. In 2020 Adam received the Arts Council Ireland Literature Project Award and was selected for The National Theatre of Ireland, The Abbey Theatre, to work on an audio production of about:blank.

Adam is a member of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Scheme and has over twenty years of experience facilitating Creative Writing Workshops. As well as teaching, Adam provides one-to-one mentoring sessions for writers, giving critical feedback on poems and whole manuscripts via his website adamwyeth.com.

Adam lives in Dublin where he works as a freelance writer. For more info on Adam’s work and books visit www.salmonpoetry.com

OUR CONVERSATION

• Joseph Campbell said, “myth is metaphor.” For Adam, a poem is like a mythology in miniature.
• The role of Jungian thought and depth psychology
• Adam’s story of moving to Ireland and discovering both poetry and mythology when he landed in the harbor town of Kinsale and learned from poet and scholar Desmond O’Grady the importance of “discipline, routine, and regularity” in a writing life.
• The Hidden World of Poetry was intended to introduce a “new mythmaking” for a non-Irish audience.
• How reading a poem is so different from the way we read anything else today. The breakthrough moment that comes through when we work with a poem over time.
• There’s no money in poetry, and so you can say anything you want. Poetry has power because it stands outside of the typical contemporary power structures.
• All great art comes from the mythic imagination. The power of active imagination and entering into conversation with a dream character.
• Adam’s working doc called “write rubbish speed writing”: it was intended to help him limber up before a writing session, but became an essential source of material for his writing, particularly about:blank - the doc that is mean to be about limbering up has become the most important thing
• Charles Taylor, Canadian philosopher.
• Dublin as character in about:blank. Taking inspiration from Ezra Pound, “make it new”
• Poetry that highlights the extraordinary nature of the internet and technology; internet like the unconscious. The human mind cannot bear too much reality, but the internet can

Our Music

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

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