Tag: Seamus Heaney

Ten Years of Writing about Poetry Has Taught Me This

From the archives

Poetry is the most textured form of writing. It attracts artists who weave sounds and images with mystery. They may be cranky (T. S. Eliot) or homesick (Seamus Heaney) or humorous (Billy Collins). They may believe that poetry is an instrument … Read More

“So walk on air against your better judgement . . .”

A review of “The Spirit Level” in 100 words by Catherine Stover

The cover photo is a close-up of a level, which is sometimes called a spirit level. Ah, you might say, this poetry collection must be about finding balance. And since the author won the Nobel Prize in … Read More

“It should not simplify.”

Up and down and up again – the changes in the temperature this spring have caught me off balance more than once. Uncertain times call for poetry, I think, and for contemplating the purpose of poetry. Seamus Heaney’s book The Redress of Poetry shows how poetry should repair or … Read More

“There was a sunlit absence.”

heaney croppedThis is the first line of my current-favorite poem by the Irish poet who was said to be “permanently homesick.”  I wonder if somehow he enjoyed being homesick. (Absence isn’t dark, it’s “sunlit” and the title of the poem is “Sunlight.”) It describes his aunt baking scones in her … Read More