Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Post A Short Story To A Friend



Forget 140 character stories on twitter we now have a 224 word story on a stamp!

To celebrate Dublin’s permanent designation in July 2010 as a UNESCO City of Literature Ireland has issued a 60 cent stamp with the words of a 224 word short work by Eoin Moore that captures ‘the essence of Dublin’.

Eoin Moore’s short work, as depicted is on An Post’s new 60c stamp.

The thick clouds cover up the moonlight, but the city’s lights provide worthwhile illumination – above them all, the beacon burns bright atop the monolithic podium, signalling to wayfaring voyages the ancient Viking settlement.  Now, where Norsemen once stood, I look back, along the quays, streets and alleys, to where the inhabitants live their lives: eating, speaking, and breathing their city into existence.  It gives me cause to wonder, as I stroll aimlessly along the cobbled paths, about those who have traversed them before me, by carriage or before there were even cobbles to walk upon.  I feel their lives and mine are somehow connected, that we all were at one point a part of this city, living pieces of its grand, striking framework.   Every High King and scholar, every playwright and poet, every politician and every rebel, every merchant, student, and busker who ever set foot in the city holds or held onto a chunk of this city’s soul; every one of them stepped to the city’s heartbeat.  I listen to the streets at night and I can feel the city’s lifeblood pumping through me; I can feel myself flowing through it.  All of us who travel those arteries step on the words, actions, and lives of those who travelled them before us. The city embodies the people, and the people embody the city.

The unusual new stamp and a First Day Cover may be viewed and purchased at main post offices, at Dublin’s GPO and online at www.irishstamps.ie


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