Heaney’s Nobel lecture, in which he offered insights into his poetry, can be viewed at YouTube http:\/\/youtu.be\/P7KzfqtL5qY<\/p>\n
EXPOSURE<\/p>\n
It is December in Wicklow:
\nAlders dripping, birches
\nInheriting the last light,
\nThe ash tree cold to look at.<\/p>\n
A comet that was lost
\nShould be visible at sunset,
\nThose million tons of light
\nLike a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,<\/p>\n
And I sometimes see a falling star.
\nIf I could come on meteorite!
\nInstead, I walk through damp leaves,
\nHusks, the spent flukes of autumn,<\/p>\n
Imagining a hero
\nOn some muddy compound,
\nHis gift like a slingstone
\nWhirled for the desperate.<\/p>\n
How did I end up like this?
\nI often think of my friends’
\nBeautiful prismatic counselling
\nAnd the anvil brains of some who hate me<\/p>\n
As I sit weighing and weighing
\nMy responsible tristia.
\nFor what? For the ear? For the people?
\nFor what is said behind-backs?<\/p>\n
Rain comes down through the alders,
\nIts low conducive voices
\nMutter about let-downs and erosions
\nAnd yet each drop recalls<\/p>\n
The diamond absolutes.
\nI am neither internee nor informer;
\nAn inner \u00e9migr\u00e9, a grown long-haired
\nAnd thoughtful; a wood-kerne<\/p>\n
Escaped from the massacre,
\nTaking protective colouring
\nFrom bole and bark, feeling
\nEvery wind that blows;<\/p>\n
Who, blowing up these sparks —————-<\/p>\n The main thing is to write<\/p>\n for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust<\/p>\n that imagines its haven like your hands at night<\/p>\n dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.<\/p>\n You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.<\/p>\n Take off from here. And don\u2019t be so earnest.<\/p>\n (<\/em>From “Station Island”)<\/p>\n ___________________________ Heaney’s Nobel lecture, in which he offered insights into his poetry, can be viewed at YouTube http:\/\/youtu.be\/P7KzfqtL5qY EXPOSURE It is December in Wicklow: Alders dripping, birches Inheriting the last light, The ash tree cold to look at. A comet that … Continue reading
\nFor their meagre heat, have missed
\nThe once in a lifetime portent,
\nThe comet’s pulsing rose.
\n(From<\/em> “North”)<\/p>\n
\n \u271d <\/a\nObituary\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"