Drawn to Poetry: Selected Works at Seventy Exhibition / Event

(1-30 May, The Linen Hall Library, Belfast)

According to W.H. Auden in his poem ‘In memory of W.B. Yeats’ ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. But for artist Noel Connor nothing could be further from the truth. Poetry has provided him with creative stimulus and inspiration for over fifty years. Across his long career, he has worked and collaborated with many of our most respected poets, including Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin, Gerald Dawe, Maura Dooley and Michael Longley. His remarkable imagery offers original insights into the poetry he has always been ‘drawn to’.

Now, to mark his 70th year, Noel Connor presents a wide-ranging selection of his drawings, prints, photo works and films from his previous collaborations, exhibitions and publications.

The exhibition is dedicated to Noel Connor’s friend, the poet Gerald Dawe, who died in May 2024.

To mark the opening of ‘Drawn to Poetry: Selected Works at 70’, and as part of Poetry Day Ireland, Noel Connor will read and discuss his work at a special event, which will include a screening of a selection of his short poetry films, including Lost Lines.

‘My friend Gerry Dawe was particularly encouraging of my poetry films and Lost Lines was a favourite of his. I want to take this opportunity to share the piece again as a tribute to him. It will be a privilege to read his some of his poetry alongside his wife Dorothea.

Sheltering Places

It’s been pelting down

all night the kind

of rain that drenches

to the bone

and a dirtstorm

in the car park.

The hot wind carries

thunder making girls

scream and old men

count the seconds,

improvising distance

as you shout to

turn the lights out

pull down the blinds

so that lightning can’t

get in and frazzle us up

in the curtain-dark room

the rumbles near and

shattering flashes

make everything go numb.

The storm is reaching

home territory, stretching

over hills down

into our sheltering places.

Gerald Dawe