So What’s it Like?

Ah, some days it’s like being in the right place

where the light though good for painting

doesn’t expose you to the glare of disapproval

of passers-by colouring in their canvases in advance.

Though, happily, there’s enough distraction in the world,

real blood and circuses, or in the private killer under the skin

to divert this people’s creative energy elsewhere.

And then there are days when a picture, though dismissed

as art, holds its appeal. Like the late-night movie,

the thriller where the OK guy, nice wife and family

attracts attention of the evil one

who satans his way past our hero’s (Why not?) defences.

Ah, but relief will come in time, good detective and all that.

The family, in the end, will be stronger than before,

the world put to rights. That’s your cue to say:

this is only a movie, look what’s happening out there!

And, yes, anyway, some days here it’s not so bad.

E. A. Markham

Archie Markham was the 2006 British Council International Writer Fellow at Trinity College. Archie’s busy residency at Trinity began in October 006 and he spent three (cold!) months living in the beautiful surroundings of Front Square in Trinity, hosting   a weekly workshop with the MA in Creative Writing students and generally soaking up the atmosphere of life in the capital city. He also did several readings whilst he was in Dublin and received a rapturous reception from hundreds of avid readers from South County Dublin at their annual Readers Day event, hosted by South Dublin Libraries.

His most recent book ‘At Home With Miss Vanesa’, published whilst he was in Dublin and launched in Dublin, London and Paris, received a very warm critical response. Archie is currently working on a new volume of poetry and a book of short stories and he assures us that the ghosts of characters past and present, watching over the hallowed halls of Trinity College, will feature in at least one of his latest stories – watch this space for more details!

Archie Markham