I lay waitingBetween turf-face and demesne wall,Between Heathery levelsAnd glass-toothed stone. My body was BrailleFor the creeping influences:Dawn suns groped over my headAnd cooled at my feet, Through my fabrics and skinsThe seeps of winterDigested me,The illiterate roots Pondered and diedIn the cavingsOf stomach and socket.I lay waiting On the gravel bottom,My brain darkening,A jar […]

So, I think every Heaney discussion should start with this poem.  I’m probably the only one who does, but since I’m at the helm for the moment, I’ll continue on apace.  Once upon a time, I gave a paper about his bog poems at an Irish Studies conference.  I used slides of the bog bodies.  […]

It’s about time we did some more work around here.  The Potomac Celtic Festival has come and gone (sheeeew), and it’s too hot to garden, and my Mom-in-law and her beau are flying back to Utah this afternoon, despite the pleading of our pets.  So I’m stepping up to the plate to crow about Seamus […]

I alluded to this poem by Paul Durcan, and I figured it would be cruel to brag on a poet’s talent without actually sharing the goods.  Particularly when I’m mentioning an Irish poet right before the Potomac Celtic Festival, which honors Ireland this year.  Paul Durcan is one of my favorite poets from Ireland.  He’s […]

I laughed my ass off reading this. All us booksellers sure do appreciate the money we’ve made off of you Mr. Brown, but oh Lordy, how you deserve it. Almost inconceivably, even.

The Poetry Foundation has been busy. They conducted a study revealing that “the vast majority (90 percent) of American readers highly value poetry and believe it enriches the lives of those who read it.” Does that mean these people actively read poetry? Um, no. “Apart from brief, incidental encounters with poetry in public places, a […]

<p>While we’re here on our musical sojourn . . .</p> <p>As I think I’ve made clear, I’m not one for treacle.&nbsp; I think music and poetry have much larger roles to fulfill than just supplying &quot;pretty.&quot;&nbsp; Verse, whether read or sung, allows the transmission of giant, important truths of existence, whether they’re nice or not.&nbsp; […]

<p>I got a copy of <a href=”http://www.powells.com/biblio/0674018249″>this</a> the other day. I thought it might be nice to have a good collection of Emily Dickinson’s work, and you know, this was published by Harvard and all.&nbsp; It’s supposedly the authoritative one-volume edition of the extra super-duper authoritative multi-volume edition by the same scholar. Cool, right? </p> […]

You may know him as Will Oldham. You may know him as Palace, Palace Brothers or Palace Music. You may know him most recently under the wackiest of all pseudonyms, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. You may even know him from his cameos in funny little independent movies like Junebug. But truth be told, you’ve probably never […]

We’ll start talking about the big hard poems again soon, once our poor heads recover from work and such.  Until then, listen to William Elliott Whitmore.  I found out about the guy because he opened for the Pogues when we saw them a few months back.  He has the best-sounding banjo I’ve come across.  Banjos […]