That Sunday morning we had travelled far.
We stood a long time out in Tollund Moss:
The low ground, the swart water, the thick grass
Hallucinatory and familiar.
A path through Jutland fields. Light traffic sound.
Willow bushes; rushes; bog-fir grags
In a swept and gated farmyard; dormant quags.
And silage under warps in its silent mound.
It could have been a still out of the bright
"Townland of Peace", that poem of dream farms
Outside all contention. The scarecrow's arms
Stood open opposite the satellite
Dish in the paddock, where a standing stone
Had been resituated and landscaped:
With tourist signs in futhark runic script
In Danish and in English. Things had moved on.
It could have been Mullhollandstown or Scribe.
The byroads had their names on them in black
And white; it was user-friendly outback
Where we stood footloose, at home beyond the tribe.
More scouts than strangers, ghosts who'd walked abroad
Unfazed by light, to make a new beginning:
And make a go of it, alive and sinning,
Ourselves again, free-willed again, not bad.
Seamus Heaney
I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, is available now from Blue Diode Publishing. My current research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.
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6 Comments
I’m overwhelmed by the majesty of this. Thank you for bringing it to me today.
‘Unfazed by light, to make a new beginning: / And make a go of it, alive and sinning,’
Wonderful. And such sounds – swart, grags, quags! And the descriptions, just right, making me slow down and pay attention.
Thank you, Anthony. Hope you’re doing ok.
Lifesaving Poems 
I’m overwhelmed by the majesty of this. Thank you for bringing it to me today.
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Thank you Charlie. Hope you are well and safe. A x
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Yes!
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Seamus……. How I love him and how I miss him.
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‘Unfazed by light, to make a new beginning: / And make a go of it, alive and sinning,’
Wonderful. And such sounds – swart, grags, quags! And the descriptions, just right, making me slow down and pay attention.
Thank you, Anthony. Hope you’re doing ok.
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Thanks so much Ailsa. Glad you like this one. I am clinging on. Buoyed by events across the pond. But tough days, still. A
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