I am genius I am Joyce.

A Dubliner of some renown

Hated, reviled, admired;

Poet and critic.

Ten years I had to wait for

Dubliners to be published

For pittance

Because I'm genius

Because I'm Joyce.

Yes, James Jaysas Joyce.

A Portrait helped,

Years and years to complete Ulysses

The greatest daytime novel of all time.

Teaching English as a foreign language

In Trieste and Zurich.

Patronised by a woman of Faith

Though I had none, Harriet Weaver.

Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare in Paris

My office

And Nora my model, inseparable;

Hemmingway carried me over his shoulder

Drunk, we sang, argued, danced,

Played the piano and guitar.

Dublin, my town, 1904 my year

And 16th June my day;

But all wanted to know, in their

Ignorance if they featured,

And did they what.

They suffered for their lack of faith

In James Jaysas Joyce

Because I'm genius because I'm Joyce.

Mine eyes are a bitch

I've moved and moved

Borrowed and borrowed

Written and written.

Blind Homer helped the plot

And Ibsen influenced

So did Gogarty ha! ha!

Beckett learned.

Wild geese abroad.

Bloom was Israelite

One for Molly.

Budgen my pal.

Chamber Music and Pomes Penyeach

Kept debtors at bay.

Then the greatest night time novel

Of all time got out of the Traps.

Anna Livia Plurabelle and H.C.Earwicker

Thought their way through the night

Towards the sea

Work in Progress.

Tim Finnegan had lived at Watling Street

Twins Shaun and Shem come into their own.

Because I'm genius because I'm Joyce.

Yes, James Jaysas Joyce.

©

Author: Roger Cummiskey, 1998

Construction updates: January 2000, September, 2000, April 2002, January 2004.

Originally published for Bloomsday 1998 by The Irish Times Newspaper.

james joyce poem admiring.

Poetry

Last updated 412 days ago by Roger Cummiskey