Perhaps best known for “Stepping Stones”, his book-length collection of interviews with his friend Seamus Heaney, Dennis O’Driscoll was a respected poet in his own right, publishing nine collections before his death at the age of 58 at Christmas 2012 (just a few months before Heaney also passed away). 

O’Driscoll was a so-called “office poets”, one of those poets who worked their whole lives in non-poetic day jobs, a category which includes Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams. (Incidentally, you can find poems by Stevens in Episode 21 and Williams on Episode 29 of this podcast.) 

This poem, “You”, is about you. 

It’s about all of us. 

It’s about the unique and strange challenge of living.

You can read the poem here.

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