Flaggy Shore Postscript

Seamus Heaney Flaggy Shore Postscript

"along the Flaggy Shore,

In September or October, when the wind

And the light are working off each other

So that the ocean on one side is wild"

This drive along the northern shore of county Clare near the Burren and south of Yeats country draws attention to the beauty of even the worst Irish weather. Many of the rocks along the shore are slab-shaped and flag-shaped. The rock strata are visible for long distances along mountain outcrops. In autumn when the Atlantic westerlies roar in, it is a wild place.

I have shared this drive with my wife as Heaney did and walked along the slabby shore.

Postscript, is the final poem in The Spirit Level Home