What a wonderful read. I read this and listened to Seamus Heaney reading it. Poetry is just so much better read aloud and Heaney voice was like a lullaby, gentle and enough to slow me down and really listen to every syllable of the poem. I just utterly loved the experience.
These poems were collected by his family and I think they did a remarkable job. Some of the subject matter is difficult and challenging but throughout there is a powerful sense of belonging, family and a love that is both immediate and also running deeply through time and place to distant ancestors. I particularly loved the poems written for and about his wife but also the poems that talk about bodies found in peat bogs (The Tollund Man and others) and the way he branches out with those poems.
I really loved Postscript and Blackberry picking very much. There is just something about Postscript that puts a lump in my throat.

Anyway, my goal for 2021 was to read more poetry and this was a very rewarding addition to that goal. I really love how one short poem gives me so much food for thought. Those little moments in a novel where you suddenly see things differently or notice a small everyday thing as if for the first time ....is there in nearly every poem I have read this year. I think you get a whole lot of thought for your money with poetry books.