Poetry in Motion: Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney

In BillyBlog's early days, I featured a lot of the old Poetry in Motion posters from public transportation. Over the last few years, I had taken photos, but never gotten around to posting them. 2017 has been a time of playing catch up. 

Here's one I spotted on March 5, 2014:

Scaffolding     Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013

Masons, when they start upon  a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won't slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job's done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

~ ~ ~

Visit the MTA Poetry in Motion page here.

Bios of the poet and the artist whose work in the subway that serves as the backdrop for the poem above, which was one of four released in 2014, appears on the site here.  You can also click on the Poetry in Motion tag at the bottom of the post to see prior BillyBlog posts about the series.