Denise Blake is a poet and writer and she is also a freelance facilitator in schools and with groups of all ages. She is registered with Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Scheme.

Workshop participants may consider themselves novices, or may have been writing for some time.  Her workshops offer an opportunity to write and share their work  in a safe, comfortable environment and in a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.  Previous participants said they felt encouraged and challenged to write creatively, and  have continued with their work after the end of their course.                               for further information;   denise@donegal.net     087-6486079

Irish Writers’ Centre

19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Tel: +353 1 8721302
Email: info@writerscentre.ie

Lunchtime Readings at the Irish Writers’ Centre

SHOp 37 (Autumn/winter 2011)

THE SHOp    A MAGAZINE OF POETRY
The issue proper begins with three poems in Irish. The first, by Louis de Paor, has a translation by him. Two poems by Liam Ó Muirthile have translations by Gabriel Rosenstock.
Other contributors to the issue include Gary Allen, Denise Blake, Tom French, Richard Halperin, Robert Nye, Knute Skinner, and Damian Smyth among many others, some previously unpublished.

Emails to: THESHOp@THESHOp-Poetry-Magazine.ie 

Sunday Miscellany Live from Donegal –   Abbey Centre , Ballyshannon 

                        Programme 2  broadcast Nov. 13th 

Readers : Anthony Glavin, Little John Nee, Denise Blake, Moya Cannon and Frank Galligan

If you missed this 2nd program click to this link Sunday Miscellany    or podcast 

                         1st programme   broadcast on  Oct 16th    

Readers for the first show –  Winifred Mc Nulty, Patrick Hull, Carlo Gebler, Ann Hull and Anthony Begley

The wonderful music  for both shows was performed by : the Donegal Chamber Orchestra, Leila Keeney,(show 1)

David and Peter Howard and Dominic Mac Giolla Bhride.

                              Hosted & produced by Cliodhna Ni Anluain        Jimmy Breslin-  sound

with thanks to the Sand House Hotel, Rossnowlagh

  If you missed the program click in to this link –   Sunday Miscellany   on the new Rte Radio player .

or visit the web site    http://www.rte.ie/radio1/sundaymiscellany/        podcast 

Sunday Miscellany’s  live event took place as part of Clifden Arts Festival in The Station House Theatre  on Saturday 24 September 2011.

Sunday Miscellany from Clifden Arts Week   

New poetry and Essays: 1957 – a poem by Gerard Smyth, Galway Muesli by Geraldine Mills, This is Not about Windmills by Mary O’Malley, Waiting for the Island Boat by Denise Blake, The Crescent Church by Bill Whelan and The Present by Siobhan Mannion.

The content of this Sunday Miscellany was recorded in The Stationhouse Theatre, Clifden, as part of Clifden Arts Week 2011.

Denise read again as featured writer for North West Words series in Cafe Blend, Letterkenny for the August event.

Sunday Miscellany 22 May 2011 – New short writing on RTÉ Radio 1

New writing on this podcast: The Yanks are Coming Mae Leonard, A Coin in a Jukebox in Minnesota – poem for Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday by Gerard Smyth, I Sing America by Denise Blake, Manically Motoring Through Moneygall by Leo Cullen, Us and Them by Sue Norton, Tomás MacAnna – The Magic and The Mischief by Joe O’Donnell

                                              How to Spin Without Getting Dizzy

 Summer Palace Press held a very successful launch of  Denise’s second poetry collection, How to Spin Without Getting Dizzy         on  11th June  2010  in the Regional Cultural Centre,  Letterkenny

How to Spin Without Getting Dizzy is available in;  Easons, Letterkenny ; Charlie Byrnes Books, Galway; Amazon.co.uk; Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway;  Summer Palace Press, Kilbeg , Kilcar, Co. Donegal  or contact me at ; denise@donegal.net

The cover painting for the book is from a “sketch” Babette painted in 1933 by Edith “Dolly” Diehl Maguire who was born on Aug,3rd 1914.

With grateful thanks to her son, Barrie Maguire

Sunday Oct 3  2010   

Sunday Miscellany RTE Radio 1 Live Recording was held at the Abbey  Arts and Cultural Centre, Ballyshannon

The readers for the first show broadcast on Sunday Oct 10th  were: Little John Nee, Padraig McGinn, Olive Travers, Marie Hannigan and Kevin Barry. The readers for the second show to be broadcast on Nov. 28th are: John Breen, Michael Harding, Winifred McNulty, Brian Leyden and Denise Blake. The wonderful music for both broadcasts was provided by the Donegal Chamber Orchestra, Fidil, The McGinleys and the Henry Girls.

Sunday Miscellany RTE radio 1 is broadcast Sunday mornings at 9:10 .  The 1st show is on  www.rte podcast.ie the 2nd show is on podcast www.rte.ie                                       with thanks to the Sand House Hotel, Rossnowlagh

2012 mini day to day desk calendar        Karen and Barrie Maguire  available amazon.com

It’s high quality printing on glossy stock, with over 300 Barrie Maguire color photographs of Ireland, and 104 quotes from the likes of Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, and O’Casey compiled by Karen Maguire.  Contemporary poets include; Seamus Heaney, Paula Meehan, Francis Harvey, John McAuliffe, Denise Blake, Imelda Maguire, Clare Mc Donnell, Annie Deppe, Ted Deppe, Averil Meehan and Eamonn Bonner. It has an desktop stand and a magnetic backer for the fridge.

Denise’s first collection, Take a Deep Breath 2004 was published by Summer Palace Press

Take a Deep Breath can be ordered from Kenny’s Bookstore, Galway

and Amazon.co.uk

Cover painting, Marin’s Quilt by Barrie Maguire

Breathings

The breathing of our house has altered.

I sense it when I waken,

know the build-up of breath has lessened.

This living space deflates, half-full of air,

like a balloon after the party.

An increase of silence, not the jangle of a key

in the front door after a night clubbing, or the slow

drop of foot fall up the stairs,

the one creaky step.

A whispered “night”; and his father’s “night Son”.

Far flown from the nestling’s breath

when we leaned into his cot to ensure he was alive.

And that essence became child, became teen,

became adult, filled our home,  moved on.

Breath; ai, inspiration, spirit, life. Family.

Denise Blake

North West Words – a new poetry venue for Letterkenny

Cafe Blend , High Rd Letterkenny       Last Thursday in every month

Wanted Writers & poets to read their work for our forthcoming events.Please contact Eamonn Bonner at …

Eamonn Bonner 074 91 600 66. or email to bonner_11@hotmail.com

Visit Northwest Words on Facebook

Denise reading at the first North West Words event

Denise has been a regular Sunday Miscellany contributor. The popular RTE1  radio show’s 2009 Hallowe’en Special was recorded live at the Strule Centre, Omagh. Link to the Podcast HERE.

Sunday Miscellany : 2008-2011   This collection edited by the programme’s producer Clíodhna Ní Anluain and published by New Island includes many of the popular pieces from the radio broadcasts of these years. The publisher is New Island and the RRP is €17.99

Contributors include Val Mulkerns, Cyril Kelly, Claire Kilroy, Mary Morrissy, Kevin McAleer, Conor O’Callaghan, Colbert Kearney, Peter Sirr, John Banville, Christine Dwyer Hickey, John O’Donnell, Vona Groarke, Evelyn Conlon, Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, and John MacKenna

Denise’s piece – The Ring in the Barnbrack was recorded at Strule Centre, Omagh

Sunday Miscellany – A Treasury

A new book: Sunday Miscellany – A Treasury edited by Marie Heaney and published by New Island is now available. The book features a selection of the content from the six Sunday Miscellany anthologies published since the programme was first broadcast on RTE Radio at the end of 1968. Contributors include Anthony Cronin, Joseph O’Connor, Val Mulkerns, Benedict Kiely and Anne Enright. The RRP is €17.99 and the ISBN is 9781848400504.

Denise’s poem, Landscapes was broadcast and is published in this anthology.

BOOK LAUNCH- Earagail Arts FestivaL                    July 4th                    Carn Lodge, Ramelton

The Sketch, the Ship and the Afternoon: Ten Years at the Summer Palace

The Sketch, the Ship and the Afternoon Ten Years at the Summer Palace Press

Pictured at the launch of the anthology entitled the Sketch, the Ship and the Afternoon to celebrate ten years of publishing by Summer Palace Press The launch was performed by Kate Newmann, publisher, as part of the Earagail Arts Festival.

A full house enjoyed readings from the anthology by Denise Blake, Averil Meehan, Brian Smeaton, Imelda Maguire, Clare Mc Donnell, Don Byrne, Kathryn Daily and Mary Turley Mc Grath with Celine Mc Glynn. Fabulous music for the evening was provided by Seoirse O’Dochertaigh.

The poems selected for the Sketch, the Ship and the Afternoon are vignettes of each of the books that have been published. The cover of the anthology is a beautiful painting by Katherine Yates of Ardara.

The book is available on Amazon.co.uk

They say the best way to learn something new is to “sit beside Nellie”, so I did. With thanks for the help to Imelda Maguire; a good friend, beautiful writer, great facilitator of creative writing groups, and a trained soul-collage facilitator.

Her first collection , Shout if you Want me to Sing was published by Summer Palace Press. Amazon.co.uk

Piebald-soul

PIEBALD-SOUL

“It is said in Ceannconn — the Head of the Hound –
the Black and Tans came for my great-grandfather’s horse,
a piebald horse that ate windfall apples from a child’s palm,
who back-burdened their small farm, who cart-pulled
a whole clan the miles to Schull for Sunday mass.

They came for his horse as they came for all others,
with no intent of any speedy return.
Paddy Callaghan, staying gravestone silent, stared
at the horse who reared full height on his back legs,
brandished hooves more deadly than smuggled Fenian guns.

So the Black and Tans went away,
passed the family in their moonlight ransacking.
If Paddy and his piebald came wandering towards
a boreen checkpoint, the makeshift soldiers stood aside
as if he was Lord of West Cork, his family the heirs.

Has his Ceannconn nature passed through our blood,
a piebald-soul that can incite bone-crushing wildness?
Come between me and mine, and we’ll see.”

– WILD HORSES by Denise Blake

from TAKE A DEEP BREATH, Summer Palace Press

Painting by Barrie Maguire

Editors Eva Bourke and Borbála Faragó present a timely and important anthology of poems by sixty-six poets, both recent arrivals and second-generation immigrants all over the world, who have made their homes in Ireland and who contribute to, challenge and ultimately broaden the definiton of what is thought of as ‘writing from Ireland. Writers with an association to Donegal include: Denise Blake, Kathryn Daily, Annie Deppe, Ted Deppe and Clare McDonnell. For further details contact - Dedalus Press

Thursday 4th March is ‘World Book Day’ and to celebrate the world of books we have organised a variety of workshops and events. 5th Class have been busy writing their story for Senior Infant pupils.
Local writer, Denise Blake, facilitated two creative writing workshops where she ‘kick started’ the writing process and got the story outlines and imaginative ideas flowing! The stories will now be word processed and illustrated ready for World Book Day.

Sunday Miscellany – A selection from 2004-2006

Denise’s poems; Missed Kodak Moment and Landscapes were both broadcast and then published in this anthology.

Landscapes

We drove past Ailsa Craig, a single molar tooth

standing in the North Channel, as we ferried our son

with all his belongings, to Freshers’ week in university,

and I thought, ‘Imagine the pain in having that removed.’

Once it was Ben Bulben, with all its shifting shapes,

embleming our travels to and from his school.

It used to crouch, a snow-coated lion ready to pounce,

or lay down, a brown-flecked hound by the hearthside.

On Aiden’s last night at home, I heard the sound of him

pouring kettle-boiled water into his sink for shaving.

I asked the pillow, When? and How?

as his growing up speed-reeled through me.

We don’t have the Scottish landscape rooted in us,

and we can’t predict what is around any corner.

In order to come back , he needs to go away;

have we given him all he needs for his journey?

This morning, that final bob of his navy beanie hat

as he was swallowed into the stream of students,

the ripple of his deep-hearted laugh carried back.

And now, as we approach Stranraer,

we are swamped by a muddle-headed mist.

Ailsa Craig, in all its certainty, has disappeared,

or has since been extracted.  We pass by an empty

horizon, while our son’s landscape keeps on reshaping.