Marking ten years since the death of Nobel-Prize-winning poet, and Queen's graduate, Seamus Heaney
The Seamus Heaney Centre joins the family and friends of Seamus Heaney, the lovers of his poetry the world over, in marking with affection as well as sadness this, the tenth anniversary of his so-sudden passing.
Today a day for going to the shelf – at home, in the library, wherever books are to hand – and passing time in the company of his words, in wonder and in gratitude.
Postscript, by Seamus Heaney
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 the 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 feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
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 big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.