News at Eleven: "Trivial things" such as waste, mess

and debris hold an ambivalent attraction for [Derek] Mahon and form part of his great subject: the overlooked. Such concerns led Mahon to register environmental degradation in his poetry at an early stage, and the subject continues to occupy him here. He notes bitterly: "If 'waste is the new raw material' as they say/our resources are infinite." One of the challenges Mahon sets himself is to find a place in his classical, sculpted poetry for the debris of contemporary life.

from The Guardian: An Autumn Wind by Derek Mahon

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