Wake Forest University Press

“Even our best qualities can turn against us, and when they do we are usually the last to know.”
― Richard Murphy, Confessions of a Contractor

“I would insist that poetry is a normal human activity and its proper concern all the things that happen to people.”
― Michael Longley

“Everything Is Going to Be All Right

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.”
― Derek Mahon, Collected Poems