<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div id="poem-top" class="tab-content active" style="display: block; "><h1 style="font: normal normal normal 24px/normal Georgia; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">North</font></h1></div><span class="author" style="text-transform: uppercase; display: inline-block; letter-spacing: 0.05em; "><br></span><div id="poem" class="tab-content active" style="display: block; "><div class="poem" style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Georgia; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 25px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">I returned to a long strand,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">the hammered curve of a bay, </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">and found only the secular</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">powers of the Atlantic thundering.</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">I faced the unmagical</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">invitations of Iceland,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">the pathetic colonies</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">of Greenland, and suddenly</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">those fabulous raiders,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">those lying in Orkney and Dublin </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">measured against</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">their long swords rusting,</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">those in the solid</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">belly of stone ships,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">those hacked and glinting</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">in the gravel of thawed streams</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">were ocean-deafened voices</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">warning me, lifted again</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">in violence and epiphany.</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">The longship’s swimming tongue</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">was buoyant with hindsight—</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">it said Thor’s hammer swung</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">to geography and trade,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">thick-witted couplings and revenges,</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">the hatreds and behind-backs</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">of the althing, lies and women, </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">exhaustions nominated peace, </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">memory incubating the spilled blood.</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">It said, ‘Lie down</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">in the word-hoard, burrow </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">the coil and gleam</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">of your furrowed brain.</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Compose in darkness. </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Expect aurora borealis </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">in the long foray</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">but no cascade of light.</font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Keep your eye clear</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">as the bleb of the icicle,</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">trust the feel of what nubbed treasure </font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">your hands have known.’</font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="text-indent: -1em; padding-left: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Seamus Heaney</font></div></div></div></body></html>