After “L’Aquilone” by Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) (by Seamus Heaney)

Griffin Prize for Excellence In Poetry, The (2001 - 0)

Original Text

Seamus Heaney, Human Chain (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). This poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from a volume on the 2011 International Shortlist).

1Air from another life and time and place,

2Pale blue heavenly air is supporting

3A white wing beating high against the breeze,

4And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon

5All of us trooped out

6Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,

7I take my stand again, halt opposite

8Anahorish Hill to scan the blue,

9Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.

10And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askew,

11Lifts itself, goes with the wind until

12It rises to loud cheers from us below.

13Rises, and my hand is like a spindle

14Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower

15Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher

16The longing in the breast and planted feet

17And gazing face and heart of the kite flier

18Until string breaks and--separate, elate--

19The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011