[Mark McDonnell]

Happy Bloomsday, everyone! (June 16th)

https://www.bloomsdayfestival.ie/

I wrote a Ulysses poem last year, that you may (or mayn't) remember. I won't post it but it's still clinging onto my profile, I see.

But here's a somewhat sillier one I wrote 5 minutes ago.

Around Dublin, young Bloom did proceed
to wander at leisurely speed.
We follow the chap
Through every mishap,
Though the book's quite a bugger to read!


Does anyone celebrate? Or have poems to share poems about Joyce/Ulysses/literary works in general?

[Max Goodman]

Ha! The book is a bugger to read, Mark!

Here's a silly thing about Joyce (in way) from LUPO last year:

Cuspidor! O Cuspidor!

Joyce felt that the most euphonious word
in the English language was cuspidor.
– R. Hendrickson British Literary Anecdotes

Cuspidor! O Cuspidor!
[..]Euphoniousest word!
Most beautiful in the language! (or
[..]at least the best I've heard.)

I love your string of plosives with
[..] those vow-els interstitial.
They make a damp appliance seem
[..] a grand bullfight official.

Though some do not appreciate
[..] your beauty, they're just sissies!
(I used you twice in Dubliners
[..] and twelve times in Ulysses!)

Cuspidor! O Cuspidor!
[..] Euphoniousest word!
Most beautiful in the language (or
[..] at least the best I've heard.)

[Jim Moonan]

.
Here in the suburbs of Boston there is a James Joyce Ramble 10K race. It used to be a quirky, costume-clad array of Joyce-lovers who ran as they recited passages for all of his works. One year a woman calling herself Molly ran naked panting, "yes, yes, yes". Authorities stopped her before she got very far. Sadly, it has evolved into a competitive race. There is most definitely a poem in that. I'll try to spit it out.

.

[Joe Crocker]

The first Bloomsday, I think, was held in 1954 organised by Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and a few friends. Here is a link to an Arena documentary showing the event. It includes some embarrassing footage of the very (very) drunk Brian O' Nolan (aka Flann O' Brien, Myles Na Gopaleen), a wonderful surreal comic writer. If you don't know his stuff, have a look at "The Brother"