Tag Archives: love

Seagull and Albertine

Posted on by

Let me seduce you with the flowers of thyme,
The scent of woodbine and of rosemary.
Above our heads the climbing roses meet
And, on the summer air, their lures combine.

If, by excess, our hungry senses sin,
Arouse sweet passion and excite the mind
So, let us sin by smell and, with each waft,
The very essence of the gods breathe in.

2001 – The roses were wonderful, especially Seagull and Albertine.

Duet for Lucy

Posted on by

The girl who smells of roses plays her flute
Beside her window open on the night.
From shadows and disorder in her room,
The measured notes of Bach’s partitas flow
And fall about me in the dusk beneath.
From hidden branches in the copper-beech,
The day’s last blackbird sings in counterpoint.
How still the twilight when the blackbird calls!
How still the garden where her music falls!

Given to Lucy for her 18th birthday, 1 August 1989

Adult Shores

Posted on by

Poem for Bridget

So softly in the summer night
Your fragile vessel has set sail,
Back through your Irish Infancy,
Bound for the Islands of the Blest.

We stand upon our adult shores
And through the curtain of our tears
Perceive at last, in all its grace,
Your loving presence in our lives.

Now comes the gathering of our years,
the harvest of our childhood days,
And in the barns of memory
We store the blessings
of your love.

For my brothers and sisters
In loving memory of our Mother 1903 – 1992