Drax Ireland

drax ireland by the eiffel tower

what is your name?
Drax Ireland  ..aka Des Donnelly

how would you describe what you do?

I am a poet and hence an outsider, an observer not a participant.

what are you currently working on?

I am finalising my first poetry manuscript, working on a long haiku series focusing on love/loving life/ living giving and dying. I am about to launch my own publishing venture and a spoken word portal.

what has had the greatest influence on your work?

The poetry of Anna Akhmatova and in particular the line from the Prologue / Requiem;- “In those years only the dead smiled/ Glad to be at rest and Leningrad city swayed like/ A needless appendix to its prisons”.  This line still reverberates in my mind even though it is years and years since I first read it. I think that in that moment this poetry stopped me and made me think of how the body of an idea can hang on the rope of some plain words.

what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?

I don’t know that there is one since to paraphrase Tsvetaeva I am;- “Unseen, unsought, unopened, and unsold” and at the same time I don’t really believe in misconception. It exists primarily in the mind of the ‘misconceptor’. A person may read something about me or read my poetry and a misconception occurs, I would consider this a good thing, since each misconception could be a stepping stone to an awareness of some sort.. for either of us or both of us.

what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?

The main strengths are the ability to draw on one’s own life experience and subjectively write about subjects that have been
written about before and before yet give them a flavour drawn from the time and circumstance one is born into. There really are no poetry police, except those who work for governments. It is possible then to spend a life writing about cheese, this is generally not a good idea. The weakness is double edged, since technology has created / is creating this gigantic level playing field, so you need to wear bright clothes.

how has technology impacted upon the work you do?

In a positive sense I interact with so many hugely talented creative people from all around the world and see images, art, literature I could never otherwise see in two lifetimes – on the other hand I’m running around like a dog after cars
In a negative sense with blogs, Hubpages, Facebook, ezines and all the other avenues for electronic publication one is inclined to put it out there and say well.. I’ll write more, but we are at a Y, there is almost a discrete choice to be made between the traditional route of sending material to the publications or running your own promo/sales machine…

what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?

write a little poetry every day, it can always be divided into the good the bad and the ugly, try to improve the good, forget the bad and leave the ugly alone. Read read read poetry every day, buy a little poetry ! and keep pumping out your work… it will never be finished, even when you die… and never ever put a job in front of your poetry, resign yourself to being poor… be humble.

where can we find you online?

http://www.poet.ie
http://irishpoet.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Drax-Ireland/130743835045
http://hubpages.com/profile/Drax
http://www.drax.net
http://www.drax.ie

what are you reading at the moment?

Doris Lessing’s Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta

what are you listening to at the moment?

Modest Mussorgsky’s Galitsin’s Exile from Khovanshchina

anything else we should know? Don’t put off going to beautiful Paris, I waited 30 years, if there is a poem or a book or art in you get it out there, let us see it.  Do not be easily discouraged since the system must breed sycophants, remember what Napoleon said;- “glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever”.

This reminds me that I need an Editor, any volunteers out there ?, drax.ireland at gmail dot com  - I’ve been writing and writing and have about 1000 poems with one MS finished but 10 more in the wings, this is nearly an impossible task without professional help…  no no not medical…

[Via http://intoviews.wordpress.com]

Beauty, Passion and Dedication: Education over Runways in Milan

An interview with Lotus of Hope founder Ana Nacvalovaite

Written by Kitty Goldberg

Photo by Meagan Cignoli - New York City

When I first met Ana, full of energy with rolled down jogging pants, an unassuming t-shirt, cappuccino, and not a stitch of make-up, she was still turning heads. At 5′11″, with intense green-eyes and blond hair, she cuts a striking figure.  In our interview, I asked her what the difference was between growing up in the U.K., New York and Eastern Europe. “When I was a bit older, my parents and I went back for a visit.  The country was in shambles. People didn’t know how to deal with Western society. Issues that used to be dealt with by the government were no longer being cared for,”  Ana says. I asked her what it was like growing up in such an influential time – when Lech Walesa had help from Perestroika. “I lived a very sheltered life. However, over dinner with former president of Poland Kwasniewski, and his wife here in New York, and I asked how things have changed since then. He assured me things got much more democratic. On some levels it got easier and some levels it got harder”.

Ana Nacvalovaite has accomplished much since her birth. A respected Oxford scholar and authority on women and children’s rights, Ana moved from her native Lithuania briefly to Poland and then Oxford at 11 years old, where she went boarding school.

With her authority in Human Rights Law, Ana began the Lotus of Hope Foundation, dedicated to helping women and children have access to education in their native countries. The goal is to identify projects globally that have not been tapped by larger organizations, and enable local teachers to go to orphanages, teach the children and give them the possibility to go on to college. Her hope is that they will then return to their native countries after gaining valuable experience. They can then use the education and experience to make a difference in their own country.

“You’re beautiful. Why didn’t you start all your charity work after making a fortune on the runways of Milan?” I ask.  Ana laughs humbly. Clearly, I am not the first person to ask this. “I never really think about it,” she says, “It’s something I just feel compelled to do now. Perhaps it goes back to my upbringing. My parents believed before you unleash yourself into the world, that one should start off with a trade in a very grounded area. I decided to go into law but I went into human rights law as an outlet, because it was something I was very passionate about,” she says softly.

Photo by Meagan Cignoli - New York City

Ana splits her time still between New York and London, preparing for her advanced degree in law, but still finding the time in her busy social and work schedule to run her foundation. What is next for this young powerhouse?  “We are hoping to expand our outreach efforts into India, Asia, and Eastern Europe”.  As I got up to leave, Ana stops me. “You know how beauty contestants always talk about world peace?  There is a certain element that beauty does contribute to saving the world,” Puzzled, I ask, “How so?” “Sometimes it opens up doors that would not otherwise open up”, she adds.

Like her, Eastern Europe has grown and fledged, continually reaching new heights.  On May 17th, 2009, Dalia Grybauskaitė became president of Lithuania.   In winning the election, Grybauskaitė became not only the first female president of Lithuania, she won by the largest margin recorded in presidential elections. Although she left Lithuania at a young age, Ana Nacvalovaite is becoming another dynamo emerging out of Lithuania. She has been a powerful example of what an intelligent strong woman can accomplish.  Ana is going to make an indelible mark on the world.  She is one up and comer to watch.

For more information about Lotus of Hope, please visit http://lotusofhope.com

[Via http://csmw.wordpress.com]