Neil Gaiman read two poems at the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards last March 17 (because, as he said, who was going to stop him?) and, while I was a fair distance away from the man, I think I managed to capture his twin performances adequately–even if my Vado was at the most minimal setting. Surprisingly, my Internet cooperated, so I’m posting these videos tonight instead of tomorrow.
First up, Neil read his poem “Locks”, which he said could be found in the Smoke and Mirrors anthology. You can also read it online at the Journal of Mythic Arts archive here.
Second, Neil treated the crowd to a reading of an unpublished (!) poem, which he says he finished only weeks ago. The title of the poem is “In Relig Odhráin” (you can spell that as “Oran” and it seems to be pronounced as “Orrin”) or, in modern English, “Saint Odhráin’s Graveyard”. He says that the poem was inspired by an old legend from Scotland–I did a bit of digging, and I found a page which details several versions of the legend, as well as a site with a picture of the actual chapel.
(Charles has an MP3 of the poem, and since he was seated in the VIP section, the audio is likely better. You can get it here.)
As a bonus, here are a few more videos: this one is a clip which show Mr. Jaime Daez of Fully Booked introducing Neil Gaiman, just before Neil makes his entrance in a rather… unique manner.
And last, here’s a clip of how Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman mythos and Coraline, reacts to the Spartacus-surreality of his introduction:
[Attribution: Base of slider image from the Fully Booked, Revelations page]
Thanks! I’ve been looking for the title of that poem for a while now, and I don’t remember him saying it.
Glad to help. It was a struggle trying to figure out how it was spelled @_@
[...] isle of Mull. Made me think of the original Wicker Man. 8. Isle of Iona. (Rocket Kapre posted a video of Neil Gaiman’s poem about St. Oran’s Graveyard. Iona is only a short ferry ride from Mull, so we visited). 9. Cable [...]