poem

Postscript

And some time make the time to drive out west

Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,

In September or October, when the wind

And light are working off each other

So that the ocean on one side is wild

With foam and glitter, and inland among stones

The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit

By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,

Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads

Tucked or cresting or busy under water.

Useless to think you'll park and capture it

More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,

A hurry through which known and strange things pass

As bug soft buffetings come at the car sideways 

And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

-Seamus Heaney