Remembering Cardinal Carlo Martini, SJ – First Anniversary of Death

Today is a time to give thanks for a great man.

Former archbishop of Milan and cardinal Carlo Maria Martini at don Luigi Verzé's 90th birthday event, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pope Francis on Friday met with Father Carlo Casalone , provincial of the Society of Jesus for Italy, who was accompanying members of the “Fondazione Carlo Maria Martini” on the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of the famous Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, who died on August 31, 2012. The foundation was established to preserve his legacy.

          (Click here for their website,)

During the brief meeting, Pope Francis recounted his memories of the late Cardinal, in particular his address on faith and justice during the 1974 General Congregation of the Jesuits.

Pope Francis called him a prophet of peace, and encouraged the Foundation in its work, recalling the duty of children to their fathers. He called Cardinal Martine a father in the Church, not only for his diocese, but for countless people.

Image source

“We, at the ends of the world,” said Pope Francis, “received from him a great contribution to biblical knowledge, but also because of his spirituality and life of faith, were nourished by the Word of God.”

Above from here

 Pope Francis welcomed the administration council for the Carlo Maria Martini foundation, on the day of he passed away one year ago. During the audience, the Pope highlighted the spiritual paternity that Cardinal Martini had on the Church.   

POPE FRANCIS

“It has been a spiritual paternity for all the Church. Even at the 'ends of the world,' we read his works. We would do spiritual exercises with his texts, and he gave us life, he helped our spiritual lives.” 

Text from the video- "The foundation aims to keep alive the spirit that characterized the life and works of this Turin cardinal. They will create an archive that includes all of his writings and speeches. They will also continue his work in the field of inter-religious dialogue. As part of that, they've created bible groups for Christians and Jews. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini was an expert on Bible studies and the New Testament. He also had a good reputation among clerical and cultural circles."

 It's frustrating that the captions for this video below are only available in Italian and I do hope that the English version will follow soon.

August 31 marks the first anniversary of the death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, SJ.

The video above is the trailer for a new documentary about the late Cardinal Martini. 

The Italian version of the documentary premiered this week at the Venice Film Festival.

Click here for a fine article from Salt and Light Blog This is Father Thomas Rosica’s tribute to the Cardinal one year ago.

Click here for Fr. Thomas Rosica's Tribute to Cardinal Martini from the Tablet magazine 8th September, 2013.

Click here for Cardinal Martini, Archbishop of Milan and Member of the Pontifical Council for Culture's talk during the Plenary of 2000 on Dialogue with Non Believers- Theological and Pastoral Foundations

Related articles on Cardinal Martini from my archives

• Cardinal Martini Dies and His Last Interview Is Another Wake Up Call For Radical Change in Catholic Church (blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com)
• On Cardinal Carlo Martini (blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com)
• 27th Sunday Ordinary Time Mass Reflections (blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com)

Update A Caravan of Donkeys For Peace and Compassion

Sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland, and supported by the British Council, the CARAVAN interfaith art exhibition sees the work of Western and Egyptian artists, both Muslim and Christian, who were each asked to decorate a life-size fibreglass donkey that was sculpted by the noted Egyptian artist Reda Abdel Rahman. The donkeys were first exhibited at the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Cairo, a centre for interfaith dialogue for over 80 years. They were then placed in strategic public locations throughout Cairo, where they achieved huge amounts of interest. They will now come to St Paul’s before being auctioned by Sotheby’s, with all profits going to charities in Egypt that serve the poorest of the poor, regardless of their creed. The CARAVAN exhibition follows in the footsteps of a number of public art displays that have featured painted animals, yet with an added depth in its symbolism, intention and message. The donkey symbolises peace in both Christianity and Islam, and is found in both the Bible and in the Qur’an. Examples are numerous, such as both Jesus and Omar Ibn El Khattab, the second caliph, each riding donkeys when they entered Jerusalem. The donkey also represents the poor, as it is an animal of burden, and this is especially the case in Egypt.

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=64700#.UiHNcT_pySo[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

Sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland, and supported by the British Council, the CARAVAN interfaith art exhibition sees the work of Western and Egyptian artists, both Muslim and Christian, who were each asked to decorate a life-size fibreglass donkey that was sculpted by the noted Egyptian artist Reda Abdel Rahman. The donkeys were first exhibited at the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Cairo, a centre for interfaith dialogue for over 80 years. They were then placed in strategic public locations throughout Cairo, where they achieved huge amounts of interest. They will now come to St Paul’s before being auctioned by Sotheby’s, with all profits going to charities in Egypt that serve the poorest of the poor, regardless of their creed. The CARAVAN exhibition follows in the footsteps of a number of public art displays that have featured painted animals, yet with an added depth in its symbolism, intention and message. The donkey symbolises peace in both Christianity and Islam, and is found in both the Bible and in the Qur’an. Examples are numerous, such as both Jesus and Omar Ibn El Khattab, the second caliph, each riding donkeys when they entered Jerusalem. The donkey also represents the poor, as it is an animal of burden, and this is especially the case in Egypt. The Reverend Paul-Gordon Chandler, Rector of Cairo’s Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist from 2003-2013 and Founder of CARAVAN, said: “Believing that the arts can be one of the most effective mediums of building bridges of understanding, respect and friendship between East and West, their creed and cultures, the exhibition seeks to communicate the important message of tolerance between Christians and Muslims, living together in peace and with compassion, a message that comes ‘out of Egypt’ for the world. The Reverend Canon Mark Oakley, Chancellor of St Paul’s, said: “There are over 40 million donkeys on this earth and 96% of them live alongside the poorest people of the world. They are known and loved for their hard work, resilience, loyalty and stubbornness. They have been used for the best and worst of human intentions: from carrying the war wounded to medical help at Gallipoli, to bearing explosives to kill in today’s war zones. Jesus chose a donkey to symbolise the divine humility. Similarly in the Islamic tradition, the Prophet was carried by Ya`fūr. This exhibition, by both Muslim and Christian artists from Egypt, calls us to remember the peoples of that country today and what can be achieved together rather than apart. It also, at a time when both Muslims and Christians suffer persecution for their faith in many places, reminds us that just as the donkeys journey together in the Cathedral towards the Holy, so humans only become spiritually alive when they travel together in peace and with compassion.” The Honorable Dominik Furgler, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United Kingdom (and formerly Swiss Ambassador to Egypt), said: “I am particularly delighted to be directly associated to this wonderful initiative. In a world and time where sectarian tension, prejudice or ignorance seem to prosper, we must do whatever we can to further dialogue and the mutual knowledge about our religious traditions and convictions. This exhibition is doing just that, with the arts uniting us as a language of love and peace.” Mark Stephens, British Council Country Director, Egypt, said: “We are delighted that the CARAVAN Festival of the Arts has forged this link with St Paul’s Cathedral to bring these beautiful decorated donkeys to a London audience. One of the British Council’s goals is to connect people through the arts, which is why we have supported the festival, which aims to use the arts to bridge cultures. We hope these artworks will generate as much interest in London as they did in Cairo.”

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=64700#.UiHNcT_pySo[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.orgAn interfaith art exhibition promoting peace and compassion is coming to St Paul's Cathedral from Cairo in Egypt.

Image source

The CARAVAN exhibition at St Paul's Cathedral, London features 25 life-size painted donkeys and will be on display from August 30 to September 23.

Given the present circumstances in the Middle East this is a poignant exhibition.

• Click here to see a video from the UK exhibition.

 A donkey makes one ask “Am I slave or free,” says artist Karim Abd El Malak, who transformed this one below into a wind-up clock. 

Image source

The donkey sculptures were first exhibited at the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Cairo, a centre for interfaith dialogue, before being placed around Cairo.  

They are made of fibreglass and were sculpted by Egyptian artist Reda Abdel Rahman.  The donkey symbolises peace in both Christianity and Islam, and in Egypt they represent the poor.  

This is a great video below, explaining how the CARAVAN arts initiative came out of a vision that the Arts can be one of the most effective mediums to enhance understanding and encourage friendship between Muslims and Christians, for as the late Nobel Prize Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz wrote, "Art is language of the entire human personality."

The objective of CARAVAN is to use the Arts as a bridge for intercultural and inter-religious inter-change, toward enhancing understanding, respect, and deepening friendship, between the cultures and creeds of the East and West.Central to the CARAVAN movement is the annual CARAVAN Festival of the Arts with the objective of building bridges between East and West, and between Muslims and Christians, through visual art, as well as literature, film and music.

The Reverend Canon Mark Oakley, Chancellor of St Paul's, said: "There are over 40 million donkeys on this earth and 96% of them live alongside the poorest people of the world. They are known and loved for their hard work, resilience, loyalty and stubbornness.

"They have been used for the best and worst of human intentions: from carrying the war wounded to medical help at Gallipoli, to bearing explosives to kill in today's war zones. Jesus chose a donkey to symbolise the divine humility. Similarly in the Islamic tradition, the Prophet was carried by Ya`fūr.

Image source

"This exhibition, by both Muslim and Christian artists from Egypt, calls us to remember the peoples of that country today and what can be achieved together rather than apart. 

It also, at a time when both Muslims and Christians suffer persecution for their faith in many places, reminds us that just as the donkeys journey together in the Cathedral towards the Holy, so humans only become spiritually alive when they travel together in peace and with compassion."

"Christian iconography often depicts a donkey carrying Mary and the child Jesus on the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt. “Being wise and gentle he bears with people throughout the road, wearing them like a second skin,” says artist Rania Fouad. 

Her interpretation above references the handles on buses and metro cars, which Egyptian men and women ride to work. Like a donkey that uncomplainingly carries people “no matter which country, which religion and which race they belong to,” the artist says, Egypt's leaders and citizens should practice respect and tolerance. The brain imagery suggests you should not judge someone’s mind by their lowly occupation."

The donkey sculptures were decorated by Muslim and Christian artists, and are going on display at St Paul's before being auctioned by Sotheby's.  
Profits from the sale of the donkeys will go to charities serving some of the poorest people in Egypt.  

The Reverend Paul-Gordon Chandler, Rector of Cairo's Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist from 2003-2013 and founder of CARAVAN, said: "Believing that the arts can be one of the most effective mediums of building bridges of understanding, respect and friendship between East and West, their creed and cultures, the exhibition seeks to communicate the important message of tolerance between Christians and Muslims, living together in peace and with compassion, a message that comes 'out of Egypt' for the world."

Image source

The Honorable Dominik Furgler, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United Kingdom (and formerly Swiss Ambassador to Egypt), said: "I am particularly delighted to be directly associated to this wonderful initiative. In a world and time where sectarian tension, prejudice or ignorance seem to prosper, we must do whatever we can to further dialogue and the mutual knowledge about our religious traditions and convictions. This exhibition is doing just that, with the arts uniting us as a language of love and peace."

The exhibition is being sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland, and supported by the British Council.  

Mark Stephens, British Council Country Director, Egypt, said: "We are delighted that the CARAVAN Festival of the Arts has forged this link with St Paul's Cathedral to bring these beautiful decorated donkeys to a London audience. 


One of the British Council's goals is to connect people through the arts, which is why we have supported the festival, which aims to use the arts to bridge cultures. We hope these artworks will generate as much interest in London as they did in Cairo."

Source

"Some of the most prolific Egyptian and Western artists have put their brushes to a donkey and the political significance of some of the works highlights just how quickly the situation in Egypt has changed. On the donkey (pictured above), one half represents the army and the other the Muslim Brotherhood, with ex-president Muhammed Morsi’s face painted on the front."

 Contemporary Egyptian art is often political. While interpreting the theme of peace and compassion artists did not shy away from addressing Egypt’s unsettled transition from dictatorship to democracy and the uneasy interplay of secularism and religion.

In Egypt one of the biggest insults you can fling is “Yah, Humar,” or “you donkey!” Egyptian artist Reda Abd El Rahman, who created the fibreglass donkey model, used his creation to attack those he holds responsible for the deaths of protestors during Egypt’s revolution. His “Renaissance Donkey” (pictured above) a none-too-subtle reference to the “Renaissance Project” of the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential election campaign, depicts a creature wearing shiny black shoes on its hooves and with the head of a bearded man wearing wire rimmed glasses—he is muslim, indicted by the prayer callous on his forehead. (The callous takes the form of a brass shoe, another form of insult.) "I always feel that there is a connection between the donkey and the Egyptian citizen who is always crushed and poor,” the artist says. The face is not one person but representative “of an unhealthy troika: financial authority and the religious fascism and military mafia. I hold them responsible for all the Egyptians who died during the revolution.” Abd El Rahman's donkey also evokes a post-revolution version of the tale of the Emperor's new clothes, as the creature wears a businessman’s suit jacket, while the rear quarters wear camouflage pants and army boots."

 Click here for more images of these amazing donkeys and the background story to each one.

Click here for the Facebook Page for the Caravan  Festival Of The Arts with plenty more information.

• Art exhibition comes from Cairo to St Paul's (christiantoday.com)

Today

Today I'll Just Give Him the Alphabet 

They say there was a farmer who was in his field on a Friday afternoon and he forgot to watch his time closely and the sun sank so he couldn't travel home to celebrate the Seder and the Sabbath with his family.

He was forced to spend the entire day in his field until sundown the next night. 

So Saturday night when he goes home, he's met by his wife who is quite irate, as well as by a quite irate rabbi who scolds him for being so careless. 

But then the rabbi said to the farmer, “Now, did you at least pray out in the field? You spent the day missing Sabbath. Did you at least pray?” 

The farmer said, “Well, rabbi, I'm not that bright a man and all the prayers I knew I was able to say in about five minutes. 

 

So what I did, I spent the rest of the day just reciting the alphabet, thinking to my self that God is intelligent, He can make words out of all those letters.”

The alphabet of our lives—the anger, the bitterness, the praise, the joys—we lift them up and we let God make the words of our lives. 

H/T To Ron Rolheiser for the story

 The above is a repost from my archives here

Today

Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m travelling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
Mary Oliver
Source: A Thousand Mornings

The Mary Oliver poem was received in my inbox today from Inward /Outward.

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time 2013

Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here 

Image source

 Various reflections on the readings from St Louis Centre for Liturgy from here

Dominican Donagh O' Shea has a fine reflection on the Gospel from here.

 Donagh O’Shea is director of the Dominican Retreat Centre, Tallaght Village, Dublin.

New Update -Tribute to Nobel Prize Winning Irish Poet Seamus Heaney Who Died Today, 30th August 2013

I am saddened to hear today's news of the death of the much loved Irish poet Seamus Heaney, in Dublin, aged 74. 

Death Notice and for Condolences Online

UPDATES

• Click here for post on the funeral service held in Dublin on Monday 2nd September with speeches and videos.  

• Irish Times Article on Seamus Heaney's Final Formal Interview in Paris.

• Irish Times Article -"Loss of this poet will be felt throughout Ireland and far beyond."

TRIBUTES

• Seamus Heaney: My travels with the great poet by his friend Andrew O'Hagan from the Guardian 

•  Channel 4 News trawls its archives for a fascinating interview with Jon Snow and footage of Heaney reading one of his poems.

• This one from The Irish Times 31.08.2013 is by Fintan O'Toole. 

• Click here for Boston Review Tribute 

• New York Times Obituary here 

• Amnesty International's Tribute to Seamus Heaney here

The Guardian Sunday Observer remembers Seamus Heaney as "a poet of immense power, a brilliant intellect, an inspiration to others – and the best of company."
Click here for article by Roy Foster.

Image source

Born in Castledawson, County Derry, he was a teacher before embarking on a career in poetry, and won the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature " for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past ". It is believed he had been suffering ill health for some time and had been living in Dublin.

NOBEL LAUREATE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

• Click here for his remarkable 1995 Nobel Laureate Acceptance Speech.

 Ireland's Arts Minister, Jimmy Deenihan, praised Heaney for his work as a literary great but also for promoting Ireland. "He was just a very humble, modest man. He was very accessible," he said.

 Writer and literary critic Ola Larsmo said of Heaney's writing in 1995 :
" it reveals "a profound experience ... that a gap exists between the totality of what can be said and the totality of all that can be witnessed, between the limits of languages and the margins of the actual world in which we live. 

For Heaney 'poetry' is a means of measuring this gap – if not bridging it."

His 1966 piece Digging, from Death of a Naturalist, was particularly famous, ending with the words: 'Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it'.

Very sorry about the annoying ads at the start of these videos. I can't remove them

Seamus Heaney - Digging by poetictouch

  MORE TRIBUTES

• BBC NEWS Irish reaction here
• Irish Times article and links here.

• RTE (Irish TV) has great coverage, tributes and a wonderful obituary here

• Click here for The Belfast Telegraph reportage with some excellent links and resources and an Online Book Of Condolences to sign

• BBC Obituary -Click here

• Daily Telegraph Obituary here

Guardian Obituary here

Sydney Morning Herald Tribute here.

PBS Video Interview with Heaney On the Wideness of Language

A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE HEANEY POEMS

He has left us so many wonderful poems so here are just a few of my favourites :-

The  poignant poem Mid-Term Break is the true account of the tragic incident that happened Heaney's younger  brother Christopher aged 4, while Heaney was away at boarding school.

Click here to read Mid-Term Break, along with some responses to the poem.

 Click here for my 2011 post which begins :

"The West coast of Cornwall where I live has some similarities to the West coast of Ireland and my birth county of Clare, and so I can easily imagine myself in Seamus Heaney's poem titled"Postscript" on the Craggy coastal road in Clare even when I drive out on the road from Portreath to Gwithian and Godrevy in Cornwall."

 Postscript

 Mindfulness Ireland on FB did a gorgeous poster for this poem today, so I've added it below. Thanks so much !!
 

Source Mindfulness Ireland Facebook Page

Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level (Faber and Faber 1996).

Thanks to Noirin Lynch for reminding me of this one via FB today, 
a prescient poem for our times. 

It is an extract from the poem Cure At Troy, credited by many as a thoughtful meditation on the conflict in Northern Ireland, and as a sort of “history” of Northern Ireland. The poem is a translation of Sophocles’s classic Greek play, Philoctetes, but, as this excerpt shows, the connections to Northern Ireland are there for the reader and listener to find. But it's also a poem that applies to many global conflicts.

“Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.”

 Then there's St Kevin and the Blackbird . If you want to know more on the background to the poem, Click here for my 2012 post on St Kevin of Glendalough, from which I have reposted this video of Seamus Heaney reading his poem on Gay Byrne's Late Late Show shortly after he won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

St. Kevin And The Blackbird - Seamus Heaney by poetictouch

And then there was St Kevin and the blackbird.
The saint is kneeling, arms stretched out, inside
His cell, but the cell is narrow, so

One turned-up palm is out the window, stiff
As a crossbeam, when a blackbird lands
and lays in it and settles down to nest.

Kevin feels the warm eggs, the small breast, the tucked
Neat head and claws and, finding himself linked
Into the network of eternal life,

Is moved to pity: now he must hold his hand
Like a branch out in the sun and rain for weeks
Until the young are hatched and fledged and flown.

And since the whole thing’s imagined anyhow,
Imagine being Kevin. Which is he?
Self-forgetful or in agony all the time

From the neck on out down through his hurting forearms?

Are his fingers sleeping? Does he still feel his knees?
Or has the shut-eyed blank of underearth

Crept up through him? 

Is there distance in his head?

Alone and mirrored clear in Love’s deep river,
‘To labour and not to seek reward,’ he prays,

A prayer his body makes entirely
For he has forgotten self, forgotten bird
And on the riverbank forgotten the river’s name

                   From The Spirit Level Faber 1996. copyright Seamus Heaney 1996.

In contrast to the statue of Kevin standing above, Heaney's Kevin is sitting, but whatever position he was in, the metaphor of waiting is strong and beautiful.

The artist Clive Hicks Jenkins has done a series of fine paintings to illustrate Heaney's poem of St Kevin and the blackbird. This was the first of his Saint Kevin paintings, titled Tender Blackbird.

    The one below shows a youthful Kevin.

     Image Source

Nine days before the announcement that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, President Bill Clinton, at a state banquet in Dublin Castle quoted the closing lines from The Cure At Troy, as Northern Ireland crept tentatively towards peace:
 

Now it's high watermark

And floodtide in the heart

And time to go...

What's left to say?

Suspect too much sweet talk

But never close your mind.

It was a fortunate wind

That blew me here. I leave

Half-ready to believe

That a crippled trust might walk

And the half-true rhyme is love.

and another personal favourite is Scaffolding

again with the annoying ads at the start !

Seamus Heaney - Scaffolding by poetictouc

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job's done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

DESERT ISLAND DISCS CHOICES

•   Click here to listen to Seamus Heaney's interview and music choices on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs in November 1989 including this one below

Related articles poems and more videos

• Seamus Heaney (Irish poet, b.1939) St. Kevin and the Blackbird (skiesofcoupledcolour.wordpress.com)
• Seamus Heaney (vgonthemove.wordpress.com)
• There are several more videos of Seamus Heaney reading here 
•  Several poems here including his iconic "Digging." 

At David Fawbert's blog here, there is a fantastic collection of Heaney's poems grouped according to the collections they appeared in.

• Summer Oysters (themillions.com)
• Heaney and Beowulf (medievaldad.wordpress.com)
• Seamus Heaney was to open Derry September poetry festival (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)

Seamus Heaney and his Christian faith

On his 2010 book The Human Chain 
Heaney said : "I didn't have such a strong sense of mortality running through the book until the reviews began to appear.
"It daunted me. I thought, this sounds like he's writing his own obituaries," he laughed.

Click here for the BBC article

 Miracle from The Human Chain

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat. And no let-up

Until he’s strapped on tight, made tiltable
And raised to the tiled roof, then lowered for healing.
Be mindful of them as they stand and wait

For the burn of the paid-out ropes to cool,
Their slight lightheadedness and incredulity
To pass, those ones who had known him all along.

Click here for D.S. Martin's brief post on Heaney's Catholic faith.

MORE ARTICLES, INTERVIEW AND POEMS  !!!

 Dinner With Seamus Heaney : by a Harvard English lecturer : also make a brief reference to Heaney's faith. (Thanks to my friend Chuck Cooper for the link.)

• NPR Tribute here including a transcript of a 2008 interview on his life and work.
• Heaney lights up Yeats summer school (irishtimes.com)
• The Poetry Foundation : Seamus Heaney 
• New York Book Review The Poet Crowned poem