TRANSCRIPT: Notes From Dunfanaghy 8 – Digging
Hi, it’s Megan. Welcome to today’s Notes from Dunfanaghy.
Today I am on lots of calls and I haven’t had a huge amount of time to think about the retreat and what I’m working on, but what I have been thinking about and dipping into a little bit is some of the poetry that I might use at the retreat. So each day in Dunfanaghy, I usually begin the day with either a short poem, or maybe a little bit of a play, or some other kind of reading that sets the tone for the day, that has inspired some of my thought around whatever it is we’re talking about that day. And it’s always, of course, an Irish writer.
And so I don’t think I’m going to use this poem this year, but this is a Seamus Heaney poem that I just thought I would share with you that I was reading today. I used this poem at the very first retreat, I think, and gave people a copy of the book. I guess I never really talk about that, but there is a swag bag that comes with the Dunfanaghy retreat that I’m particularly proud of. There’s always a bag of treats, which usually include some kind of books that feed into what we’re talking about. My hope is to provide an artistic experience of the whole thing that kind of steeps you in the work in lots of different ways. So I love to give people something physical as well.
But I just want to share this poem today. So it’s called “Digging,” by Seamus Heaney.
*[Poem text: “Digging” by Seamus Heaney — I can’t reproduce the full poem here for copyright reasons. You’ll have the original from wherever you first read it, or you can link to it/quote a line under fair use.]*
So Seamus Heaney was from Derry, went to the same school as my dad and brothers, and he grew up in rural County Derry, and so a lot of his poetry draws on that landscape of his youth. So, I mean, Seamus Heaney was a genius, I’m a fan of a lot of his poetry, but I just love — there’s something about the simplicity of, he’s just looking at the landscape around him, and he is drawn on this stuff which is so familiar to me and feels very everyday.
And I don’t know, I kind of use it as a reminder that the material we need to make our work is just right in front of us, and it might seem like the most mundane thing to us, but there’s magic in it if we can kind of sit with it.
And I also like “Digging” because, you know, he’s going back through the generations. He’s travelling through time, and he is digging with his pen, but his work is a continuation of the work of those that have come before him. So obviously that is a big theme for me as well.
But yeah, I just wanted to share a poem with you today. I hope you liked it.
I will be back tomorrow with another note from Dunfanaghy. If this is the first one you’ve listened to, I am basically sending myself voice notes as I prepare for the Dunfanaghy retreat at the end of September, as I kind of gather my thoughts. And I thought it might be interesting to share these notes with you as well.
A few people have asked questions about how many people might be at the retreat, and some logistical questions and things like that. So the group is never more than 10 people, so it’s a small group. And if you have logistics questions or anything like that, you’re very welcome to send me an email. I’m also happy to hop on a quick Zoom call to have a chat through any questions you have about the retreat, if that would be easier for you. So you’re very welcome to reach out to me via email if you have questions.
Thanks for listening.