Squarings Forty-Eight by Seamus Heaney

by Niall McArdle

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK, so expect to see a lot of verse on the blogosphere.

In honour of the day, here is one of my favourite poems by Seamus Heaney

Squarings xlviii

Strange how things in the offing, once they’re sensed,
Convert to things foreknown;
And how what’s come upon is manifest

Only in light of what has been gone through.
Seventh heaven may be
The whole truth of a sixth sense come to pass.

At any rate, when light breaks over me
The way it did on the road beyond Coleraine
Where wind got saltier, the sky more hurried

And silver lamé shivered on the Bann
Out in mid-channel between the painted poles,
That day I’ll be in step with what escaped me.

#NationalPoetryDay