Dublin Y Duende

Dublin y Duende is a blog all about writing, and living, and writing in Dublin.  Oh, and the madness of poets.

Two years ago I went to Madrid.  My friends were getting married in Toledo, and wanted to be there.  In total, I spent 5 weeks there – and wrote all about it here:  Duende, Shoes and Wine. I had a little apartment in the Barrio de las Letras which was close to everything.  Café con leches, musuems, tapas – all the vibrant and hot things that make Madrid the city that she is.  And in this city, I felt myself become vibrant and hot.  More than this, I found myself writing.  In those five weeks, I broke down and discovered just how deep, how full my desire for writing is.  It is the most ‘in my skin’ that I have ever been.

I returned to Canada and continued to write.   I also set about the business of getting my work published.  I remember when I received my first acceptance – “Onions”, a poem about my grandmother making a salad – I cried.  This poem was one of the first ‘real’ pieces I had ever completed, and having written it in 1999, it stands as one of the oldest.  While I have shared it with many people over the years, it felt good to see it in print.  When I was asked to participate in the launch of the journal issue in which it appeared, I was completely exhilarated to read it out loud. It sounded fresh to me – and it made me feel as ‘in my skin’ as I had when I was walking and writing in Madrid.

After Madrid and my first publication, I began to have serious thoughts about taking a year off work and going away some place to write.  While it took some time to figure out my departure date (initially I had plans to leave in January 2011) it took very little time to decide that Ireland was going to be the some place to go away to.  There are many reasons as to why I chose Ireland – reasons I’ve repeated to everyone who’s asked.   Finding myself here, on the eve of my departure, a list of reasons isn’t necessary.  In the end, I chose Ireland because it came easily – it was an easy decision to make.  I have a gut for these things.  As a writer and as a woman, I have a gut for these things.

Then again, maybe it has nothing to do with guts at all.  Maybe it’s more in line with what a woman from my writer’s groups shared with me a month ago:
“All poets are 3 parts mad, maybe 4, so don’t worry” (from The Madness of Poets, Dublin y Duende).

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Duende, Shoes & Wine

Duende, Shoes & Wine is very much about these three things, over the course of five weeks in Madrid.  But mostly about duende, when it isn't about shoes.  Or wine.  

"The first time I think I came into contact with duende (not knowing it was duende at the time, of course) was when I was 15 and I discovered Leonard Cohen.  I never knew anyone who could write like him.  To read him is a necessary endeavour—he writes beautifully, in a way that affects my gut.  For the longest time there was no one else—how could there be?  And then, in a poetry class during my undergrad (in science, of all ridiculous and ill-suited things to choose for myself) I discovered Lorca—I discovered duende; it was then that I knew, I would never be the kind of writer (or woman) who relies on muses" (from El Duende).

Also - I think Madrid is a woman.  In every way.

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