This is Episode 44 of Poems to Live Well By.

Today’s poem is "Mirror in February", by Thomas Kinsella.

You can read the poem here.

Thomas Kinsella was an Irish poet, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 93.

Although relatively little known outside Ireland, he has been compared favourably to his Nobel-winning Irish countryman Seamus Heaney. (One reviewer in the LA Times in 2006 expressed the view that Heaney’s later work had gone stale whereas Kinsella "constantly surprises".) 

This poem was one of his early poems, written in 1962 when he was 33 (“the age of Christ”). It was on the Irish school curriculum for many years. However, it’s not a simple or an easy poem. Every line invites us to stop, and pay close attention, and maybe stopping—even for a moment—and paying close attention—even for a moment, is something that will enhance every ordinary day of our lives.

Music Credit:

Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/  | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com