Spoken word – MEADHBH O'CONNOR

The following are examples of fragmentary vignettes I write. The scenes relay psychological encounters with landscape, often in the company of loved ones and companions. Prose poetry, ambient electronica and minimalism are mixed to create fleeting moments of ambiguous time and place. © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

Sky Walkers, 2024. See the commissioner’s page by pressing the button below. Commissioned as part of the Nature and Place initiative by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Ireland. Please also see my dedicated project page.

LINK TO SKY WALKERS

Fairy Castle. Prose poetic vignette. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From my sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains Partnership. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

Sky Walkers. Poem. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From my sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Many thanks to the walkers of Three Rock and Two Rock Mountains for their voices. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains Partnership. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

Tibradden, O’Connell’s Rock. Prose poetic vignette. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From my sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains Partnership. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

Prose poetic meditation, Carrickgollogan. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From my sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains Partnership. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

The Lead Mines of Ballycorus. Poem. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From my sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains Partnership. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

Three Rock Mountain. Prose poetic vignette. Written, spoken and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2024. From her sonic, poetic series Sky Walkers. Commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as part of the Nature and Place initiative 2023. Supported by Coillte and Dublin Mountains

Otherworld. 2024. Prose poem written and spoken by visual artist Méadhbh O’Connor. Commissioned by Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, U.S.A. as part of the exhibition Talamh agus Teanga: Land and Language in Contemporary Irish Art, curated by Dr. Kristin Dowell. Minimalist, spoken-word artwork that fuses classical meters, mythical and Irish tropes with references to science–a contemporary play on allegorical devices. The work makes subtle allusions to a longing for timelessness and the eternal. Copyright © 2024 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

‘The Physicist,’ presented here as part of the overall project alt space (~ 2023) revisits a conversation with a physicist friend and places it in a surreal landscape–a recollection that moves around memory and transforms to the imagined, juxtaposing analytic and poetic understanding. The poem makes subtle allusions to the mystery of quantum mechanics, and of the harnessing of these phenomena in modern technology. It comes from deeply personal experiences of the creativity that can spark from such conversations between artists and scientists.

‘The Grassy Dam’ describes a collision between the natural (the river) and man-made world (the dam), as recalled as a fragment of memory.
Written, performed and recorded by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2020. Copyright © 2020 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.

‘The Downdraught’ is a prose poetry vignette placed at the location of a near death experience.
Written, spoken and edited by Méadhbh O’Connor, 2020. Copyright © 2020 Méadhbh O’Connor. All rights reserved.