Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)

It is with great sorrow and sadness that I report the death of Seamus Heaney in Dublin. I offer my condolences to his wife Marie, and children, Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.

Seamus Justin Heaney, 13 April 1939 to 30 August 2013.  R.I.P.

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"The spot is hallow'd where the good man dwells;

Though centuries have laps’d, his words and deeds 

for his remotest offspring still resound”  Goethe

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Seamus Heaney was the ultimate poet to me; in his work, his life, his manner, his openness and accessibility. I thought of him as a friendly statue, solid, smiling as I resisted the urge to bow down in his presence. Meeting him at readings down the years he was always the same, I remember meeting him at a reading in Clogher, Co Tyrone, I had just pulled up when he drove in beside me & got out, we talked a while & taking a jacket from the car he said;

 “I may put on the working clothes”

--

Des Donnelly, Poet, Co Tyrone.

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Poem - If I

if I was a bird
you are the colour on my wings
if I was a fish 
you are the rainbow on my back
if I was the land
you are the flower growing in me
if I was a star
you are the light shining from me
if I was a song
you are my music
if I was that boy
you are my girl
if
if only 
if only

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by Des Donnelly   ..written 2.Dec.2004