Dorgan, Meehan talk of Heaney, Irish poetry

Journalist, novelist and poet Theo Dorgan and playwright and poet Paula Meehan talk, on this edition of The Writing Life, about the late, great Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who had died seven months before this taping, about the exchange of thought between Irish and American poets and about poetry that celebrates the stewardship of the world. To honor Heaney, Meehan reads “A Remembrance of My Grandfather Watty Who Taught Me to Read and Write” and Dorgan reads “Wedding Guests at the Anniversary,” both of which were written with Heaney in mind. Meehan and Dorgan also talk about cultural exchange in poetry; “My own sense is that poets are made, not out of fluency, but out of the fractures in a culture,” Meehan says. To end the program, Meehan reads “A Sonnet for Gary Snyder for his 80th Birthday” and Dorgan reads “Thornship.” For more information about HoCoPoLitSo's live and recorded programs, or to help support them, visit www.hocopolitso.org.