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Rooted Reflections: 20 Years in London & New Poems · The Rooted Soul Podcast

• 0:00
  Good evening, and welcome to the Rooted Soul podcast once again.
• 0:04
  The website, therootedsoulbooks.com, where you can purchase the book.
• 0:08
  There's links on there, e-book, paperback, $9.99 UK and Ireland, $4.99 e-book.
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  Alan at therootedsoulbooks.com, or at Alan MacDonald IREA on Instagram is where
• 0:18
  you can be contacted for any feedback, questions, queries, comments,
• 0:23
  anything else, and I get a lot of that, and I do hope I get back to all of you.
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  This evening is about reflection actually but the positive kind of reflection,
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  i went to see my niece and kilburn and her friends earlier on i've left them
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  to the party scene that's long since left me in the late nights but,
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  it got me thinking that actually in a few weeks i'm 20 years living in london
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  which is incredible it's gone by in the blink of an eye and there's been a few
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  milestone reflections, you know,
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  not just about that, which I'll talk about,
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  but obviously the second collection, which much earlier than expected has gone
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  into the publisher and is in fairly completed form.
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  Which has been incredible. I'm watching a kind of a, really just an evolution
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  of what it is that I'm doing and what I want to do with it, which has gone from,
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  one collection to make sense of things I went through, which we won't go into
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  all of that again tonight,
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  to now that I, you know, I feel like I'm a poet.
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  That's what I want to be and what I want to do in terms of my second life,
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  second career, outside of my job.
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  And I came home this evening and being out with my niece and her friends are all wonderful people.
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  And some creative people there too. It reminded me of, you know,
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  at the 17th of September 2006 when I moved over at 27 years of age and I had
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  a great group of friends already here.
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  And we're moving into a place with my friend in Fulham. It's a rental room.
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  Dropping my case and heading down to the Elk Bar in Fulham.
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  My two friends of mine are now married with three kids, Richie and Nana,
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  who were living there as well.
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  We met at the Elk Bar in Fulham and went on to Brogan's that night.
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  Both bars that, it breaks my heart, to realize how long I'm here and how old I am.
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  That when I looked online earlier, it's like they're long since kind of closed down.
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  But it's been a wonderful time in my life. I mean, I know I went through struggles
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  but in general, day to day, I had wonderful people and friends around me in
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  London. And it's a great city.
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  You know, it's not for everyone and it can be, I was very fortunate to have a group already here.
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  Whereas, you know, it can be a lonely place if you come over on your own to
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  make friends initially.
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  But the underbelly of London is incredible, like any big city.
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  It's a living, breathing thing. And I'll read a poem in a little bit.
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  It's kind of a throwaway poem I wrote when I was out in London Bridge,
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  which is one of my favorite parts of London, with friends of mine last month, and we went for dinner.
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  And we were kind of going for a stroll late that night.
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  And it kind of got me thinking about what goes on above the first two floors
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  of these old buildings and places like London Bridge and elsewhere.
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  But the reflection is really about where I am now.
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  You know, that 20 years of I've made great friends through my job,
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  which I've been working for all but one of those years in London for the same company.
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  And just the amount of opportunities I've had, you know. And it's this time
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  of year as well, actually.
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  A lot of people love summer, and I think it's amazing. But I love living in
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  places. I mean, coming from Ireland, for sure, you can have four seasons in an hour.
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  But coming from a background where the seasons change and i like that for some
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  reason for me and i know some of the people feel this way i love the darker
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  evenings closing in as much as i love the lighter evenings coming from spring into summer,
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  and i think it probably comes from a adored school certainly primary school
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  i loved i loved it and there was always a sense for me that the new year started
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  on the first of september and went right through to the end of august the following year.
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  So it always feels like a rejuvenation for me when the seasons change.
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  I don't get, thankfully, all the other ailments I've had over the years,
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  I don't get kind of seasonal affective disorder, whatever they call it.
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  I kind of, it's a rejuvenation for me. I have, you know, exams and stuff coming up.
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  And that after this weekend is kind of the knuckle down point coming like to
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  the end of the year up to Christmas.
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  And, you know, I'm a January, February March kind of guy as well and then you
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  know when the seasons start to come into change as I said you just you feel
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  that kind of not moving on but I'm often asked,
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  do I miss Ireland.
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  And I don't really have a chance to I mean from April through to probably Christmas
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  I'll be home once a month for four days so I get back to see friends and family
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  and what I'm doing in terms of the poetry.
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  And live events and what i'm trying to do with it live readings and just kind
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  of build a base on this side of it you know and going to places in ireland that
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  i haven't gone to in a long time i mean again cork i was in,
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  earlier this year and just fell in love with the place i don't know why i hadn't
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  been there before and it's a very cultural you can feel it it's it's a very
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  cultural soulful place so i'm kind of looking forward to,
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  to going back there and hopefully getting into a couple of the festivals next
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  year as well to maybe do a little,
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  i don't know a little bit of reading of one of the collections or you know to
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  to maybe bring the live show works out more than or more than one occasion and wonderful as well,
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  and i was thinking back because yesterday i did read again and the first collection the rooted soul,
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  and i'm going to read a few poems probably lesser read poems i think you know
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  the ones on bereavement and i've been i've done blessings and dinner parted and,
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  you know the ones about the phase one which is a dark period and enough we've
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  said enough on that I've moved past that I think in terms of in my life and
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  it's very important and it helps other people absolutely wonderful and going
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  back and reading it grounds me and reminds me of you know where I came from to where I am now,
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  and the well-known stranger is one that a.
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  Jesus, I think even the well-known stranger herself would be tired of,
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  I doubt, I doubt she's listening or reading any of this, but her ears are probably
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  burning. I am, of course.
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  I'm, of course, kidding. Because there's a story arc that goes through all of
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  that now through the collection, which I want to.
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  The second collection has more, the Christmas. Always has some more of that
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  as well, because I like to reward people who read from the first collection
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  on to try and bring something that might be an interesting kind of creative story arc that's there.
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  But those ones have kind of been, you know, they've been read.
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  And one of the things I was thinking of was my niece Emma was saying to me this
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  evening, she was like, where did the name come from, The Rooted Soul?
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  And while I'm finding the actual poem itself, it was something I always used
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  to say to people, which maybe I wasn't taking on board myself.
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  The life, I love the way I talk about these things if no one's ever said them
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  before. Life is about happiness. It's not all about happiness.
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  Being happy all the time is not possible. What is possible is being content
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  with what you have. Doesn't mean you don't strive for more.
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  But if contentment roots you in the ground, and the winds of happiness and sadness
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  and tragedy will blow you left, right and center, but those roots will bring
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  you right back to contentment, wherever you are and wherever you need to get to.
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  So I'm going to read, I may sing a little song later, Behave Yourself.
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  This is the Rulich Soul, which is the title poem. Death and love and losses,
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  the pressure of the day-to-day can be the reason in your life that joy is eked away.
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  Imagine you've removed the stress. Can you honestly say that these are the factors
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  that make you feel this way?
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  Find your contentment, a tree rooted in the ground, and winds of life blow left
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  and right but won't stop the joy you've found.
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  That's a very hard thing to do at times. We're all striving, you know.
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  But again, I think of the 20 years in London, my job, family,
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  loved ones, dalliances and relationships and everything else.
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  And I don't look back on any of them negatively now.
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  You know, things can end badly. But I've had a great life here.
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  And I hope I continue to. And my base in my home is London.
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  I'm a proud Southeast London Irish guy.
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  And I get to go home so often that, I mean you know it's an hour away I mean
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  I could be getting a train from you know the other side of the country in Ireland and,
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  again there's there's such an Irish tone that runs through this city as well,
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  you're never really far away from a paddy if you need to feel a little bit at home you know but it's.
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  It's a time I think to 20 years for me and with what I'm doing at the moment
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  which is such a big change from you know before it is a good time because I'm
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  not married I don't have kids. So I don't have those forks in the ground.
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  There aren't those milestones of before and after.
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  And so it is, there are other achievements and other things in life that have happened.
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  You know, I guess the struggles I went through, there's certainly a before and
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  after the worst of it, which gives me an appreciation, as I said before,
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  for the good things in life. And, you know, I was coming home this evening and
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  it was starting to darken.
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  God, it really gave me a frizzle of excitement for what's coming next,
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  what's coming in autumn before, you know, before the second collection gets
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  published in hopefully mid-late November.
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  And it just kind of brings me back to that contentment, that tree rooted in the ground.
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  And it's thinking about, you know, I was thinking about a poem from Yeats,
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  which I'll read now, which I love, which is a kind of a melancholy,
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  it's a little wistful for home, you know, or for a home.
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  The lake-isle of Inishfree. I will arise and go now, and go to Inishfree.
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  And a small cabin bill there, of clay and wattles made.
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  Nine bean rows will I have there. A hive for the honeybee. And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
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  And I shall have some peace there. For peace comes dropping slow.
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  Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings.
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  There midnight's all a-glimmer.
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  And noon a purple glow. An evening full of the linnet's wings I will arise and
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  go now For always night and day I hear lake water lapping With low sounds by the shore,
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  While I stand on the roadway Or on the pavement's grey I hear it in a deep heart's
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  core It's a wonderful poem.
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  Not my kind of cadence or meter for how I write, but it just,
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  you see how that trips off the tongue?
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  I haven't actually read that since school.
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  And yet the words trip off the tongue in such a way that you kind of know where
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  to go with it as you're reading the sentence through, which is an incredible,
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  incredible skill. I don't know.
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  I think this guy might go far.
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  So I was talking about London. and as I said it's a little poem I wrote so I
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  hope you'll give me a little bit of leeway it's Saturday night at the bank holiday,
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  it's called London Bridge London Bridge what's going on beyond eye level gaze,
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  so much life above and on out of the reach of the strays often wonder after
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  ground floor what occurs in these marbled halls,
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  secret are just the wealthy whores living their lives warts and all for once
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  to be let in on private lives of the discreet and why they need discretion.
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  Floors above the street.
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  Be sure to have a gander next time over that way. A glimpsed,
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  ostentatious grandeur barely seen beyond first survey.
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  But often, it was the same in Dublin. I used to be fascinated sometimes walking
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  down the streets at night. It's the same here.
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  You know, these old, beautiful buildings. Wonderful architecture.
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  And just what kind of goes on in those floors above the shops and the stores and all that, you know?
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  It's probably the conspiracy theory guy in me that there's probably meetings
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  of the Illuminati or something in my head,
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  but there is a lot in London and I've experienced it where, you know,
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  you get a glimpse of the wealthy, the elite, those behind closed doors,
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  and it really is not necessarily a better life, but it is a different life.
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  So I'm going to read another one from Phase 4 of The Religious Soul,
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  The Journey from Struggle to Joy.
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  This is called Normal Wisdom.
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  How to share my wisdom without preaching or pretense.
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  They think the low point is them when the crisis is immense.
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  Every problem different, but
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  leave behind the proud. Broaden shouldered burdens by saying it out loud.
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  Wisdom earned from huge mistakes and from a life with error.
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  Stuttering on roller skates with experience comes verve start by giving you
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  a break be accountable but kind the problem will begin to flake and crumble given time,
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  that's one of my secret little guilty favorite ones actually broad and shoulder
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  shoulder burdens actually i was quite happy with that um.
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  I was quite happy with those lines because it hasn't tripped off the tongue
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  that poem with me this evening, but I am quite tired.
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  But it does, I think it reads actually quite well.
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  I'll read one more from it, which a colleague said to me, she really,
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  really enjoyed this one. This is Blue Sky Thinking.
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  Waking up this morning, blue skies beyond the curtain. In between the yawning,
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  this view has made me certain.
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  Of the joy and little mercies, clear head and clear day dawning.
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  So long without those moments, feeling mentally in mourning.
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  Now rejuvenated, new emotions that feel fresh To face the day with upward sway
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  No longer weary in the flesh,
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  That was probably, I would say, the first one I wrote That really was espousing,
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  the change, you know The comeback to something.
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  Stronger and something better so it was an incredible feeling when i can still
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  remember when i wrote that piece that it really started to feel like a fundamental
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  shift that happened you know as i said i don't want to keep going over that,
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  darker period really it is about that coming out of it and everything that happens
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  happens for a reason guys and where i am now is i could never have thought that
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  i'd be about to publish a second book and to do all that i'm doing,
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  so it really is a case of for anyone out there struggling having difficult times
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  it does get better it can get better it needs a little work for ourselves but
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  also that understanding you know
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  I had again the other day I was feeling quite sad and I wasn't sure why,
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  and I just had to sit myself down and say yeah this is a little down period,
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  have an early night nice cup of tea before the early night and the next day
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  everything felt a lot better so those kind of deep troughs and they're much shallower now.
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  And as i said there's been no melancholy or sadness reflecting over the 20 years
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  i've been in london or anything that i've done or achieved at all,
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  it feels like as i said before people say life is short when you're enjoying
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  it but actually when you're really present in it,
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  it can really feel like you're eking every moment it's not that things are flying past.
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  Although it really, again, as I said, it is, you know, where I am now to where
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  I was before, really just feel like a bit of a fly past, you know?
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  So I was thinking of this song to finish on the season and leave you guys alone
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  for a few days with the podcast.
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  It's one of my favorites. It's a Patrick Cavanaugh poem made famous by Luke Kelly.
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  I haven't sung it in a long time, so I don't do edits on here,
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  as you guys know, so forgive me.
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  On Raglan Road of an autumn day I saw her first and knew,
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  That her dark hair Would weave a snare That I might one day.
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  Be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.
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  On Grafton Street in November, we tripped lightly along the ledge.
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  Of a deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge.
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  The queen of hearts still making tarts And I'm not making hay Oh,
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  I love too much And by such, by such,
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  Is happiness thrown away I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign,
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  That's known to the artists who hide.
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  Where all ghosts meet, I see her walking now.
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  Away from me so hurriedly, my reason must allow.
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  The dawn of day.
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  Beautiful poem and a beautiful song. I've got one more, which is Paddy Cavanagh again.
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  Canal Bank Walk, and I always remember this from school, because those two words
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  came back to me, habitual and banal, which I always loved in this poem.
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  And they're in the first collection. as a, I guess, a sort of a credit to, or a nod to Irish poets.
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  Leafy with love banks and the green waters of the canal, pouring redemption for me that I do,
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  the will of God, wallowing the habitual, the banal, grow with nature again as
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  I grew, the bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third party to the couple kissing on an old seat,
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  and a bird gathering materials for the nest for the word.
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  Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.
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  Oh, unworn world, enrapture me, enrapture me in a web of fabulous grass and
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  eternal voices by a beach.
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  Feed the gaping mead of my senses, give me ad lib, to pray unselfconsciously
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  with overflowing speech.
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  For this soul needs to be honored with a new dress woven from green and blue
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  things and arguments that cannot be proven.
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  It's a wonderful poem. So, a few reflections from me this evening.
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  A few poems from the first collection and poems from poets that I love.
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  With that, I will sign off, guys, for the Mike Holiday Weekend and,
• 20:10
  as always, Better Living Within.