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From Life to Loss and back: Dermot Bolger's "The Venice Suite"

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Last month I went to the Irish Cultural Centre (one of my most favourite places in Paris) and attended a poetry meeting with Dermot Bolger, his french translator Marie Hermet (see the picture below, taken by me that night) and other poets.



I did not know Dermot Bolger before and I was very glad to discover this author and his works. The rencontre poétique was focused on his 2012 collection The Venice Suite - A Voyage through Loss, which is, firstly, a touching, loving homage to Bolger's wife, Bernie Clifton (who died suddenly in 2010, shortly followed in 2011 by Bolger' father, to whom the collection's last poem is dedicated; in another poem Bolger recalls his mother, who prematurely died when Dermot was just a ten-years-old little boy, hoping to see his mom coming back from the hospital.

But The Venice Suite is not just a sort of mourning journal: it is also a general reflection on how the loss of our beloved ones affects us and our lives.



I sketched on my diary some impressions on this interesting and touching soirée poétique. I am happy this collection has been translated in french for non-english speaking readers, and I am even happier to have the original english edition signed and dedicated by Dermot Bolger.



Below, my signed copy of Dermot Bolger's collection The Venice Suite; in the background, the quiet and lovely courtyard of the Irish Cultural Centre.





A tiny detail of a picture of me on that night. I have decided to publish for a very simple reason: I was wearing a shirt and a jacket I wore while in Dublin, last year, and this is a memory dear to me.


Today, I have read aloud The Venice Suite in its entirety, while walking in my favourite Parisian park that, like myself and my face, I want to keep private.

Just after reading, I have sketched on my diary this little artwork with some verses I particularly love from this beautiful collection.

Indeed, it was for me the best and the most fitting reading in this special moment of the year.


I know only the single lesson we have been taught by your death:
There is no next time; no moment will replicate the wonder of now.
Dermot Bolger

I am looking forward to read more Bolger's literary works.



(C) Vera da Pozzo

(C) Italy is Mine - and It owes Me a Living



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