Seamus Heaney is one of my favorite poets, and his "The Diviner" is my second-favorite of his poems.THE DIVINER
Cut from the green hedge a forked hazel stick
That he held tight by the arms of the V:
Circling the terrain, hunting the pluck
Of water, nervous, but professionally
Unfussed. The pluck came sharp as a sting.
The rod jerked with precise convulsions,
Spring water suddenly broadcasting
Through a green hazel its secret stations.
The bystanders would ask to have a try.
He handed them the rod without a word.
It lay dead in their grasp till, nonchalantly,
He gripped expectant wrists. The hazel stirred.
--Seamus Heaney
The mask: Hermes. Sculpture mix, raku-fired. The mask doesn't quite fit the poem--no y-shaped branches, no water springing forth--but there's a congruence of wood and magic in my choice of the illustration. And, Hermes and Heaney are both worthy guides.
