Seamus Heaney

Drifting Off

The guttersnipe and the albatross gliding for days without a single wingbeat were equally beyond me. I yearned for the gannet's strike, the unbegrudging concentration of the heron. In the camaraderie of rookeries, in the spiteful vigilance of colonies I was at home. I learned to distrust the allure of the cuckoo and the gossip of starlings, kept faith with doughty bullfinches, leveled my wit too often to the small-minded wren and too often caved in to the pathos of waterhens and panicky corncrakes. I gave much credence to stragglers, overrated the composure of blackbirds and the folklore of magpies. But when goldfinch or kingfisher rent the veil of the usual, pinions whispered and braced as I stooped, unwieldy and brimming, my spurs at the ready. from Sweeney Redivivus from "Station Island" (1984)