My date, from The Third Annual Willow Manor Ball,
Poet, Seamus Heaney
is a finalist for the
Canada's most generous poetry award.
His submission is called
Human Chain.
When asked about the mournful quality of the poems he replied:
"You get to a certain age and several of the people who were fixed stars in your life begin to fall. You yourself don’t have to be shaken by mortal danger in order to feel your mortality. A couple of poems in the book which end up being among the most elegiac were written before my stroke — I’m thinking of “The Baler” and “In the Attic.” But no doubt the stroke heightened the elegiac quotient, although it also brought on a surge of writing energy and in the months after it I wrote a lot of the things included in Human Chain."
I'll just be popping along to the bookstore now.
Good Luck Seamus!
and I'm headed for google search to learn more
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember you dancing with him. Petticoats everywhere!
ReplyDeleteCro darling you know the rule...what happens in Willow Manor stays in Willow Manor!
ReplyDeleteI've just looked Seamus Heaney up too. Wow, he's written a lot of poems. You should be in for a brilliant night on September 30th J :0)
ReplyDeleteI did not know of this man. Seems an interesting chap.
ReplyDeleteLightenings VIII is my all time favourite poem. Makes me cry every time I read it.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we all love poetry that makes us cry? It might be the spot in our hearts that needs sentimentality.
ReplyDeleteI'm adding Human Chain to my must have list. I adore him.
ReplyDeleteI love his work. I had the pleasure of meeting him, once, after standing in a long time. I had in my possession two of his books, one quite old, which tickled him. Lovely man. Marvelous poet.
ReplyDeleteI meant to write: "after standing in a long LINE".
ReplyDelete