A Poem about a Daughter

Continued packing, but eventually curtailed by dinner with the poet Robin Robertson who's just arrived from London. Together we'll go to Wuhan for our Poems in Public Places project. Meanwhile, we got to know each other over Yunnanese food. Like me, he has two children, both girls. Here's a poem called Donegal, about the elder of the two: 

Ardent on the beach at Rossnowlaghon the last day of summer,
you ran through the shallows
throwing off shoes, and shirt and towel
like the seasons, the city's years,
all caught in my arms
as I ploughed on behind you, guardian still
of dry clothes, of this little heart
not quite thirteen,
breasting the waves
and calling back to me
to join you, swimming in the Atlantic
on the last day of summer.
I saw a man in the shallows
with his hands full of clothes, full of
all the years,
and his daughter going
where he knew he could not follow.

Lovely.