Wheels within Wheels

  The title’s reference to a ‘complicated system affected by secret or indirect influences’ (OED) is born out in practice. A fun moment provided young Heaney with an entrance into his developing self. Born an intelligent, inquisitive youngster on the family’s rural farm, he enjoyed the thrill of putting his bicycle to experimental use, carefully noting the ‘what-happened’. He discovered the spin, motion around a central axis, force fields, gravity, and deflections dictated by the laws of physics at an early age. I The poet’s first experience of working something out for himself (first reaI grip I ever got on things) involved the art of pedaling –  not  astride his bicycle, rather with the bike upside down on  its seat […]