The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem Canal Bank Walk, by Patrick Kavanagh Written in the late 1950s, after a long period of illness and disillusionment, this poem marks a clear shift in Kavanagh’s outlook. Instead of satire or bitterness, he focuses on walking the Grand Canal and paying attention to ordinary things: water, birds,...
8 days ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry Written during a period of political and personal unease, this poem turns away from anxiety and abstraction toward the steadying presence of the natural world. Berry describes lying down among animals and water, not to escape fear but to let it loosen...
15 days ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem Postscript, by Seamus Heaney Heaney wrote this after a drive along the Flaggy Shore in County Clare in Ireland, capturing one of those rare moments when weather, landscape, and mood combine to cut straight through your defences. The poem isn’t about scenery so much as the shock of awe, and the...
22 days ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem Everything Is Going To Be Alright by Derek Mahon Written during a period of depression and recovery, this poem is one of Mahon’s most quoted works. In plain, measured language, it offers calm assurance in the face of uncertainty. Its closing line, “the sun rises in spite of everything,” has been...
29 days ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem The Underground by Seamus Heaney First published in North (1975), this poem looks back on the early years of Heaney’s marriage. Set during a frantic dash through the London Underground after a concert, it blends mythic imagery with a very ordinary moment between two people. Heaney often returned...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem Love After Love by Derek Walcott Written after a difficult period in his personal life, this poem appears in Walcott’s collection Sea Grapes. It reflects his turn toward themes of reconciliation and self-recognition. Instead of addressing romantic love, Walcott frames the act of “coming home to...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem Advent by Patrick Kavanagh, 1956 Written after his recovery from illness and years of creative silence, Advent belongs to Kavanagh’s later spiritual period following The Great Hunger. The poem turns away from social critique toward renewal through humility and simplicity. Blending religious...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in poetry, music, film, literature, and art. Poem The Sun Never Says by Hafiz A short poem by the Persian poet Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. Using the image of the sun shining without expectation, it expresses selfless love and generosity. The simple language and brevity reflect the Sufi tradition of finding the divine in ordinary...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Creative Capsule A free Sunday newsletter brought to you by The Creative Echo. Hi all! Here's this week’s Creative Capsule: five handpicked works in film, music, literature, art, and poetry. Poem The Mower by Philip Larkin, 1979 Written late in Larkin’s life, after his final poetry collection High Windows, this short poem recounts the moment he accidentally killed a hedgehog while mowing his garden. Its quiet remorse marks a rare turn from his usual irony toward empathy, a simple plea for...
2 months ago • 1 min read