The Arts Trust at Galway University Hospital is today celebrating All-Ireland Poetry Day. A poetry project called A Moment in Time has been set up and it will bring a short anthology of poems, selected by renowned poet Mark Roper, to the patients and staff of University Hospital and Merlin Park University Hospital.
The poems approach the topic, A Moment in Time, in various ways, some focus on the awareness of a single moment, others on a moment of realisation or choice. The anthology will be presented as a menu on the breakfast tray for patients and will be available on tables in the staff canteens and in the hospital restaurants and shops.
Commenting on a further initiative to celebrate the day, Margaret Flannery, the arts officer at Galway University Hospital said: “Patients and staff of the hospital will also be in for a lunchtime treat this Thursday when local poet Michael Gorman gives a poetry reading at 1.30pm in the Chapel in University Hospital Galway. Michael Gorman is a hugely charismatic reader of his work; his readings are everything a good poetry reading should be.”
Michael Gorman was born in Sligo and educated at Summerhill College and NUI Galway where he now teaches on the MA in writing programme. His poetry collections include Postcards from Galway, Waiting for the Sky to Fall, and Up She Flew.
The aim of the Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is to support and enhance the patient environment in University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital. It believes that involving the arts in the healing process promotes the wellbeing of patients, staff, and visitors to the hospital.
For further information on this project and or the arts programme in Galway University Hospitals contact Margaret Flannery at 091 544979 or margaret. [email protected]
