A Blessing
One day for passion
Two days for pain
Three days unrationed
Four days slain
In heart that is given
In mind unhinged
In mind that is riven
In heart, hot, singed
We swing in uncertainty
Lash ourselves down
Invite the arrows
Bend pins around
Till our rings regulate
This pricking potentate
And make unsaturate
Love domesticate
Children of Love
Children of love, now
Springing off to your own
Bear the blessings
That you have known
Carry them onward
Spread them around
Abroad by the roadside
Or wreathed in a crown
Share with your young loves
The seeds you have known
What you will discover
Is what you have grown
Taste your sweet apple
Bite into the pear
Take a chaste walk
In the cool midnight air
Remember the sun
The rain and the house
Your lessons, your readings
Your parent’s spouse
Then forget and forget
These blessings don’t mind
What you will discover
O fruit you will find
Discoveries that rank remembering—
A welcome
Bread on the table
Blue flight though water
Broken rocks
A rolling paper penny ring
Fleeting places in the hearts of children
Each discovery of grace and courage
Past confusion
Remember
And add them to the leather flap in the hand pump
The green paint on the wagon
Mosquito bites
Callused feet
Hand trailed in water
Finger poking, coaxing water through tent cloth
Water hauled from the brook
Stitches
And sing
All voices
Sing unthinking
The dark evergreen night of common love
In the hearts of children
Unfleeting
Remember discovering
Over and over
Each ranking grace
Take courage
Past dissolution
Build
Copyright Paul Kelly 2011
