Poem on Recovery from Paralysis

Let Us Not Yet Speak of Love

(On our son's recovery of movement after 3 months of total paralysis in 1990 when he was 7 years old)

Let us not yet speak of love

but rather of what love means -

That we who were not

and yet now are;

that we who are called forth

and clothed with dust of earth

or star

as God at first called forth the Light

from the unspeakable maw of Night;

That we who might not have been

yet have become,

who given all of timeless Time

live now not then

nor anywhere but here

Let us not yet speak of love

(which is too easy and too difficult)

but rather of what love means -

That we who now speak

that we who turn to look

that we who are not rock

nor ice

can reach forth 
with liquid grace,

can choose to open

or to close

both hand and face.

That we who were not

can now turn 
and look

and speak

That we who are not rock

but dust of earth or star

can muster mirth to laugh,

can stir the voice to sing,

can turn

and by God's grace

can speak forth Light

can turn and look

into the dreadful face of Night

and speak forth,

speak forth Light.

(Excerpt from “Bogha-frois san Oidhche/ Rainbow in the Night”, The Handsel Press, 1997)
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See also "A Poem for Dionne"

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