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From: "Jean R." <>
Subject: "The Pitchfork" -- Seamus HEANEY (b. Derry 1939)
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 23:59:23 -0700

THE PITCHFORK

Of all implements, the pitchfork was the one
That came near to an imagined perfection;
When he tightened his raised hand and aimed with it,
It felt like a javelin, accurate and light.

So whether he played the warrior or the athlete
Or worked in earnest in the chaff and sweat,
He loved its grain of tapering, dark-flecked ash
Grown satiny from its own natural polish.

Riveted steel, turned timber, burnish, grain,
Smoothness, straightness, roundness, length and sheen.
Sweat-cured, sharpened, balanced, tested, fitted.
The springiness, the clip and dart of it.

And when he thought of probes that reached the farthest,
He would see the shaft of a pitchfork sailing past
Evenly, imperturbably through space,
Its prongs starlit and absolutely soundless --

But has learned at last to follow that simple lead
Past its own aim, out to an other side
Where perfection -- or nearness to it -- is imagined
Not in the aiming but the opening hand.

-- Seamus HEANEY

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• "The Pitchfork" -- Seamus HEANEY (b. Derry 1939) by "Jean R." <>