May 15-19, 2026, a group of Monadnock Pastoral Poets traveled to meet with the New Pastoralist Poets from Jiangsu Province in China and Irish poets from The Ploughed Field Collective in Gort, Ireland. The gathering was hosted by the Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society at the only home WB Yeats ever owned, Thoor Ballylee, a place Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney called, “The most important public building in Ireland.” It was the fifth annual gathering for Poets Bridging Continents.
American poets Jackson Caffrey, Claire Golding, Meg Kearney, Rodger Martin, Maura MacNeil, Susan Roney-O’Brien, and Linda Warren along with archivist Rodney Obien, Mary Maegher, and Patricia Wright, represented the U.S. contingent.
Maura MacNeil at the window of one of Yeats' sitting rooms. Credit: Meg Kearney
Poets (l-r) Claire Golding, Maura MacNeil and Meg Kearney at Autograph Tree, Coole Park, Gort, Ireland. Photo credit: Linda Warren
The symposium at Thoor Ballylee consisted of lectures, readings, Chinese and Irish tea ceremonies, music, American renga creations, and tours of Yeats’s home by presenters from China, Ireland, and the United States. Later there were workshops at the Hidden Gem Cafe in Gort, the play “Two, a a tour of Seamus Heaney’s famous Flaggy Shores.
American renga team (l-r) Sinan, unnamed participant, Jackson Caffrey, Cao Maoliang, and Meg Kearney. Photo credit: Meg Kearney
A completed renga. Credit: Linda Warren
Irish harpist playing in Yeats’ kitchen. Credit: Meg Kearney
Kilmacdough Monestary Ruins, Gort, Ireland. Credit: Meg Kearney
Poets Susan Roney-O’Brien, community members, and calligpaher/poet Zichuan begin their renga.
In Yeats’ kitchen, Poet Zichuan presents poet Rodger Martin with a Cao Maoliang calligraphy of Du Fu’s poem “Jue Je” Credit: Linda Warren
Poet Chen Yihai speaks a poem about tea. Credit: Linda Warren
Reciting Seamus Heaney’s poem “Postscript” by the Flaggy Shores. Credit: Meg Kearney
Curator Renee Fox and Archivist Rodney Obien at Georgia and WB Yeats’ bedroom, Thoor Ballylee. Credit: Meg Kearney