Amidst the 'pale blue heavenly air'

Running rest-day ...

... what else to blip about today, but Seamus Heaney, whose poetry has had a huge impact on me (and many others).

Here's the last verse, from his last 2010 collection (as pictured). I've re-read it from cover-to-cover in the last few hours - such incredibly, incredibly powerful poetry:


A Kite for Aibhín

Air from another life and time and place,
Pale blue heavenly air is supporting
A white wing beating high against the breeze,

And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon
All of us there trooped out
Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,

I take my stand again, halt opposite
Anahorish Hill to scan the blue,
Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.

And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askew,
Lifts itself, goes with the wind until
It rises to loud cheers from us below.

Rises, and my hand is like a spindle
Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower
Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher

The longing in the breast and planted feet
And gazing face and heart of the kite flier
Until string breaks and—separate, elate—

The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.