PURE GOLD
You gave me a little bottle
With a glass stopper
Of pure refined liquid gold
This is your life’s energy
I hear you say
It is very very precious.
It is all you have
And it is all you will ever need
Be careful how you use it my beloved child
RED KITES
It is not the humanity of it
Or even the animal of it
It is the pure simplicity of it
Red kites synchronizing
Soaring with thermals
No need to ask permission
Just knowing how and when
to catch the uplift
twitch the tail
and change momentum and direction
High in the clear blue.
The plaintive whistle calling from the skies
says watch me watch me
They curl and weave in freedom
saying to you and me
Shake away all those restraints
that bend you out of shape
Allow yourself to join us.
Be free
The question is perhaps
in the answer
There is no need to walk the rugged path
Choose the hardest road
or even climb the highest mountain
Just give yourself permission
to soar and let the uplift of this
precious life
carry you forward
You do not need to struggle
for each day’s sacred morsel
Allow your childlike yearning
To touch the beauty of each nature morning
And recognize the preciousness
of every earthly day.
MY GRANDPARENTS HOUSE
Here was a space
and here was love.
Warm as the heart of the kitchen
with cooking smells that comfort,
and my grandmothers hands
gnarled and dusted white with flour,
producing volumes of
potato bread, scones and wee buns.
Butter soft and waiting on the side
Here was a space
and here was love.
The wood fire crackling spitting alive.
My grandfather sitting reading
and casement windows,
closed against the cold damp
of an early Irish morning.
Dickens the complete works
behind glass in the tall bookcase and
on the table linen napkins ready in their rings