"Since when," he asked, "Are the first line and last line of any poem Where the poem begins and ends?" - Seamus Heaney

The whole of the Irish landscape, in John Montague's words, is a manuscript which we have lost the skill to read.

History says don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

I cannot be weaned/Off the earth's long contour, her river-veins.