Zacsta
Member
(boring English :: )
Relic of Memory
The lough waters
can petrify wood,
old oars and posts
over the years
harden their grain,
incarcerate ghosts
of sap and season.
The shallows lap
and give and take:
constant ablutions,
such drowning love
stun a stake
to stalagmite.
Dead lava,
the cooling star,
coal and diamond
or sudden birth
of burnt meteor
are too simple,
without the lure
that relic stored -
a piece of stone
on the shelf at school,
oatmeal coloured.
- Seamus Heaney
Relic of Memory
The lough waters
can petrify wood,
old oars and posts
over the years
harden their grain,
incarcerate ghosts
of sap and season.
The shallows lap
and give and take:
constant ablutions,
such drowning love
stun a stake
to stalagmite.
Dead lava,
the cooling star,
coal and diamond
or sudden birth
of burnt meteor
are too simple,
without the lure
that relic stored -
a piece of stone
on the shelf at school,
oatmeal coloured.
- Seamus Heaney