Poetry Friday: Of Course It Had to Be Heaney This Week

No surprise there, right? If you clicked through to the "Tollund Man" link on my last post, perhaps you listened to Seamus Heaney read some of his poems. If you didn’t, oh, do!

These, from his 8-sonnet suite about his mother, are particularly poignant: Clearances 3 and Clearances 5. For copyright reasons, I cannot post them here, of course, but here’s a taste.

    When all the others were away at Mass

    I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.

    They broke the silence, let fall one by one

    Like solder weeping off the soldering iron…

Read the rest.

This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is at Two Writing Teachers.

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  Friday reading
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  Poetry Friday: Moving
• 
  Today, Some Trees

Comments

1. Kelly Fineman says:

   I love that comparison — potatoes to solder. What a fresh image.

   On October 12, 2007 at 11:59 am

2. Charlotte says:

   I remember going off to hear Seamus Heaney reading his poetry my Sophmore year at college, and being blown out of the water…Thanks for the links to these poems, which are new to me.

   On October 17, 2007 at 10:03 am