Night Drive
The smell of ordinariness
Were new on the night drive through France:
Rain and hay and woods on the air
Made warm draughts in the open car.
Signposts whitened relentlessly.
Montreuil, Abbeville, Beauvais
Were promised, promised, came and went,
Each place granting its name’s fulfilment.
A combine groaning its way late
Bled seeds across its work-light.
A forest fire smoldered out.
One by one small cafés shut.
I thought of you continuously
A thousand miles south where Italy
Laid its loin to France on the darkened sphere.
Your ordinariness was renewed there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi, can you tell me the source of the poem? Who is the publisher of Seamus Heaney's Night Drive?
Would appreciate if you can share!
It's from his collection entitled 'Door Into the Dark' (1969) and is published by Faber and Faber (in the UK).
Post a Comment