Literary Imaginings by Lisa C. Taylor

I’m here! After many changes of planes, a long and sleepy bus ride through misty green hills and small towns, I arrived in Galway at the Eirann Bus Station. My writer/collaborator Geraldine Mills kindly picked me up and transported me to the Bed and Breakfast which was a very good thing because my luggage is heavy and by then it was raining. My Bed and Breakfast is called College Crest and a very nice young woman named Helena helped me to get the fickle wireless going. I took a cool to cold shower because the hot water was apparently not turned on–but it woke me up which is probably a good thing after only 2 hours of sleep last night. When the rain stops (yes, it always stops) I will force myself to walk into town knowing that it is best to get on Irish time as quickly as possible. The way to do that is to stay up and go to bed at a reasonable time. No promises. The town should be hopping with the arts festival. When we drove by the green (Eyre Square), there was a marching band. True Irish hospitality! I wish my luggage would lose some weight. I truly understand the benefits of traveling light because I didn’t do it!

Where will I find the poetry in all of this? Will it be in the crowd of French schoolchildren sitting on their duffel bags in the bus terminal? Is it in the magenta blossoms in a window box I saw on my bus ride from Shannon to Galway? I can smell the sea from here; hear doors opening, traffic noises. The rain has slowed to drizzle and the sky is opening up. I will go outside and see what I can find.