If birth is a shock that whisks us out of another existence, a life that is whole and not lacking, then we can spend our whole lives in a state of longing for something we can't quite remember, that we can't quite articulate. In his poem about this kind of division and separation, 'Cleave', David… Continue reading David Whyte on Love and Separation
Category: Irish Poetry
When Human Beings Found Out About Death – Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney wrote this heartbreaking poem in memory of his friend Donatus Nogwa in 1995. The story follows an Igbo legend about the loss of innocence and the overwhelming strength of the concept of everlasting death whose spell can't be broken even by great chiefs or great loves. Wicklow, the place mentioned in the poem's… Continue reading When Human Beings Found Out About Death – Seamus Heaney