Sad news, as Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney has passed away at the age of 74. Heaney, once described by poet Robert Lowell as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", died this morning after a brief illness. You can read his obituary here. The world lost a great one today, a "once-in-a-lifetime portent, the comet's pulsing rose" (to quote from his poem, "Exposure"). I'm leaving off here with a video of one of my favorite poems of his, "Death of a Naturalist". RIP, Seamus Heaney. You will be missed.
Showing posts with label obits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obits. Show all posts
Friday, August 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
R.I.P. Adrienne Rich
...and the world loses yet another phenomenal poet. Adrienne Rich has passed away at the age of 82. Link below, to the L.A. Times article, and a couple of videos. The world feels a little sadder, today...
"What Kinds of Times Are These?"
"Diving Into the Wreck"
"Diving Into the Wreck"
L.A. Times:
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Goodbye, Szymborska
Sad news today, that Poland's 1996 Nobel Prize-winning poet, Wislawa Szymborska, has passed away at the age of 88. Here's a link to the NY Times article:
I studied some of her work during my days at VCFA, and always appreciated her sense of humor. Here's a poem of hers I always liked, called "In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself", from 1976:
The buzzard never says it is to blame.
The panther wouldn't know what scruples mean.
When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame.
If snakes had hands, they'd claim their hands were clean.
A jackal doesn't understand remorse.
Lions and lice don't waver in their course.
Why should they, when they know they're right?
Though hearts of killer whales may weigh a ton,
in every other way they're light.
On this third planet of the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.
Good stuff, and a whole body of stellar work left behind. RIP, lady.
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