Also appearing were the poet Timothy Donnelly, musician Mark Mulcahy frontman of the bands Miracle Legion and Polaris and Cait O'Riordan founding member and bass player for the London-Irish band The Pogues. And, of course, Paul Muldoon and his house band Rogue Oliphant.
Muldoon was curiously absent for most of the evening, although he did begin with one of his spoken word poems, this time with some awkward rhymes(which he acknowledged).
Tim Donnelly began with the poem Malamute published in The New Yorker and ended with his ode to Diet Mountain Dew also recently in The New Yorker, both humorous and clever and delivered as spoken word. But I was more struck by his sweet ode to love called The New Intelligence from his book The Cloud Corporation:
"I love that when I call you on the long drab days practicality
keeps one of us away from the other that I am calling
a person so beautiful to me that she has seen my awkwardness
on the actual sidewalk but she still answers anyway."
A bearlike, bearded Mark Mulcahy performed two soft and dreamy songs about his mother, Esther, on his mind because it was her birthday. "It's for the Best" were his mother's words after the death of his father. Cait O'Riordan sang a rousing version of "Kitty Ricketts" accompanied by Mulcahy and Rogue Oliphant who also had the opportunity to play a couple of their own songs.
Laurie Anderson returned with a dark, cautionary piece where she changed her voice electronically to become Donald Trump. She then joined in with the rest of the musicians for a final number, a duet that Muldoon had written for O'Riordan and Mulcahy.
Although there were shouts of "Encore! Encore!" from the audience, it was a wrap.
I encourage you to attend the next Muldoon's Picnic on Monday, April 11th, 7:30 when Book Prize-winning Author Anne Enright, A.M. Homes and Pulitizer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa will be performing. But book early! This Monday's Picnic was sold out!
http://irishartscenter.org/literature/muldoons_picnic_4_11_16.html
