Station Island Quotes

“The main thing is to write
for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust
that imagines its haven like your hands at night
dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.
You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.
Take off from here.”
― Seamus Heaney, Station Island

“Then I thought of the tribe whose dances never fail / For they keep dancing till they sight the deer.”
― Seamus Heaney, Station Island

“You lose more of yourself than you redeem
doing the decent thing. Keep at a tangent
When they make the circle wide, it's time to swim
Out on your own and fill the element
with signatures on your own frequency.”
― Seamus Heaney, Station Island

“To work, her dumb lunge says,
is to move a certain mass
...through a certain distance,
is to pull your weight and feel
exact and equal to it.
Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.”
― Seamus Heaney, Station Island