"Room to Rhyme"

Today, a true highlight of my literary life, I spent the morning with Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.

These pictures are from that conversation which took place in his home.

I was also able to digitally record (thanks to my iPhone!) a good bit of our conversation. My reflections on this occasion will come at another time.

This title is taken from a book that he gave me called "Room to Rhyme," a lecture with images from a commencent celebration at the University of Dundee. In this lecture--which takes its title from the opening lines of a mummers' play performed locally when he was growing up in Co. Derry--Heaney offers his reflections on the link between memory and meaning. As with everything he writes, it is both profound and personal.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Marie Heaney, wife and muse of Seamus, who proudly showed me around her garden. The Poet then, upon request, showed me a replica of his Nobel Prize--as the real one is stored in a bank vault.

A lovely Dublin morning!