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A Poem for Michael and Christopher, After death of a spouse, Aging, Anahorish, Art, Bellaghy, Coming of age, Death and dying, Door into the Dark, Family, Fathers and sons, Loss, Memoir, Northern Ireland Culture, Personal Helicon, Poetry, Seamus Heaney, Soundtracks of our Lives, The Forge, Writing
walking round a space without seamus heaney
I thought of walking round and round a space Utterly empty, utterly a source Where the decked chestnut tree had lost its place In our front hedge above the wallflowers. It’s been a year, and it is still strange to type the words. Seamus Heaney is dead. There is still no way for me to convey the inestimable impact of his words on my adult life. He has been with me every day for as long as I can remember, like a pulse. During the bad times, when friends and relatives have lost loved ones, my condolences to them have been wrapped up in Heaney’s pitch-perfect poems. On the day of…
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Arizona, Being young, Belfast, Best friends, California, Concerts, Eamon De Valera, Hypnotic Eye Tour 2014, Immigration, Irish Diaspora, Jerry MaGuire, Road trips, Songs for the Road, Soundtracks of our Lives, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
running down a dream – part one
I have been in love with Tom Petty for over 35 years. I can’t help it. I’m convinced that had Tomcat met me when I was younger and could hold a tune, he would have snagged me to be one of his “heartbreakers.” Yes, I know Stevie Nicks is the Honorary female Heartbreaker, but she had proximity on her side. The truth is that Tom Petty (as well as the miles of highway that stretch from coast to coast) is largely responsible for my emigrating from Ireland to America in the first place. Well, that along with finding work and leaving The Troubles and the rain behind. In 1985, I was…
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hand ballet ~ magic & loss & lou reed
Marking time with a kind of dread this morning, aware that on the horizon are the one-year anniversaries of the deaths of Seamus Heaney, Lou Reed, and, of course, my Ken. Good to remember what Mr. Reed said – “There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.” I wrote this last year following the death of Lou Reed. Had I known Ken would be dead 12 days later, what would I have done differently, to hold on and to let go? How much magic would we have packed into those final days of a lifetime?
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Addiction, Dead Poet's Society, Death and dying, Depression, Good Morning Vietnam, Good Will Hunting, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Mental Health, Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams, saying goodbye, Self-medicating, widowed
“i had to go see about a girl” ~ thank you, robin williams
Crawling across the bottom of the TV screen are the words “Robin Williams Dead at 63,” and as celebrity doctors weigh in on reports that the actor died at his home in Northern California today, apparently due to suicide by asphyxiation, I am drawn back to my first encounter with Robin Williams on the TV in our living room in Antrim. As they speculate about his battle with severe depression, I am a teenager in Northern Ireland once more, and he is an alien from outer space on the Mork and Mindy show. Brilliantly, he was Mork from Ork. Pam Dawber, as Mindy, was the perfect foil. Easy to like, she shared my taste in music with the…
