Two of a famous poet's most famous lines

were common currency before he published them.
Such irony!
Whatever you say, say nothin' !  was the 'mantra'
of working-class people (not just Catholics) in Belfast,
with reference to the unsympathetic, crass police.
Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.
He digs with a pen was said long ago, in Irish,
of rural boys who worked in offices.