麻豆社

Michael Longley is Northern Ireland's most eminent contemporary poet, described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He has devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and has won numerous poetry prizes.

In the first episode of this series of The Essay, he talks about his home town of Belfast and his love of jazz, saying that, 'Good poetry for me combines two things: meaning and melody.' He also loves the classics, which he studied at Trinity College Dublin, where he met his wife, Edna, a distinguished literary critic. He was one of a group of young poets that emerged from Northern Ireland in the 1960s and he describes the mutual support, rivalry and excitement of that time.

He reads his poems Elegy for Fats Waller and an extract from his poem River and Fountain from a new collection, Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024. He also reads Bookshops from his collection Angel Hill and Poem from The Slain Birds.

Presenter: Olivia O'Leary
Producer: Claire Cunningham
Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins

Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for 麻豆社 Radio 3.