Close and Slow: 'The Hill-Farm' and 'The Other Side'

A reflection on two poems about outsiders and others

Last week I had the privilege of teaching Irish poetry to a remarkable group of people who had made their way to Belfast from across the world for the CS Lewis Foundation Summer Institute. Seeing your world and its poetic work through the appreciative eyes of others is an enriching experience, and a section of one of the seminars drove me back to two po…