The external reality and inner dynamic of happenings in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1974 were symptomatic of change, violent change admittedly, but change nevertheless, and for the minority living there, change had been long overdue.

My teaching was animated by what I was reading and being excited by as a poet.

Part of my gradual education of myself has been to think that there is a deep relationship between the nature of the creature and the worth of the art.

In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.

Two buckets were easier carried than one. / I grew up in between.

The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.

Hope for a great sea-change timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.