Guest Columnist: Vona Groarke, incoming Ireland Professor of Poetry

It’s a great honour to have been chosen to represent the artform to which I have committed so much of my life. I’m proud to represent a Professorship that, for almost thirty years now, has promoted the art and craft of poetry, as well as the art and craft of its readership.

Ireland is rightly proud of our poetry heritage and of the three Irish poets (to date) – W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney - to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. It will be a privilege to also remind people here and abroad of the vibrancy of contemporary Irish poetry writing and to do my best to promote it alongside the many agencies and organisations already engaged in that work.

Poetry is an international language. It’s also an inclusive and generous language, with capacity and leeway for people from all kinds of backgrounds and identities. It would probably be truer to talk of ‘Poetries’, with so many approaches to its writing and publishing now in currency, and such a multiplicity of occasions and locations where poetry occurs.

There is no single way to write a poem, and the art greatly benefits from the energies and curiosities of new voices. My own writing has been galvanised by and evolved out of places I’ve lived in – Ireland, the U.K., and the U.S. – and I’ve learned a great deal and derived huge pleasure from the poetry of these (and other) places. As part of my professorship, I’m hoping to showcase Irish poetry abroad, and to highlight the breadth and depth of poetry being written and published here.

I’ve always been interested in other art forms – painting and music, especially, as well as in other genres of writing. As part of my new role, I’d be very open to being involved with readings, exhibitions and concerts (or, better yet, a combination of them all) to showcase Irish artists and contemporary Irish culture in all its plurality, pluck and flair.

At the core of our cultural expression is language. I believe it’s more important than ever to uphold the value of poetry in our culture, a culture which often seems overly keen on the ephemeral hits of social media, with their inflated enthusiasms or outrage. Against them, poetry’s scrupulous care about language and its capacity to channel experience, thought and emotion is both corrective and necessary.

Language is often described as a ‘debased currency’, its nuances and resonances flattened by the clichés of politics, marketing and the matter-of-fact didacticism of the internet. Poetry challenges all. Its inherent challenge is often perceived as a problem – I see it as a boon. Its interest in quizzing language, mining it and playing with it for possible intrigue is, I believe, its fascination, ardour and vitality.

That poetry invigorates language is crucial to its abiding relevance. A good poem is a gift of language, and we are fortunate in Ireland in having such a richness of exactly that gift. My hope for my three-year term as Ireland Professor of Poetry is to be a worthy and generous bearer of that gift.

To discover more about the work of Vona Groarke, visit www.vonagroarke.com.

The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was established in 1998 following the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Seamus Heaney. It was felt that this honour should be marked by choosing, every three years, a poet of honour and distinction to hold the Ireland Chair of Poetry. The Chair is supported by Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, as well as by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.