Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The Inner Music (poem for John O'Donohue)
The Inner Music
Bless you, John O’Donohue.
You went places
we never got to go,
learned those rocks
face by face,
stone by stone,
until each one was your
friend, a solid companion.
You walked by the sea,
imbibed its wash and tide
until your were the very swish
of the waves, the
boom and bluster against the shore.
You were not afraid
to plunge in naked
at the spring’s turning,
not shy, even when the waters
were roiled and threatening.
I wish I had gone there with you,
climbed that rugged landscape,
thrust into those chilled waters,
had your gift for turning all
into final sound,
the inner music
which never abandons you.
(John O’Donohue, beloved Irish poet/writer, died January, 2008, at age 53. He lived in the area known as "The Burren," which is covered in a great rock sheath, sometimes to the exclusion of all vegetation. He loved to climb over these rocks, and said he recognized the individual qualities of each one. He was also known to swim in the cold, cold waters of the sea off the northwest coast of Ireland.)
Dorothy Walters
January 7, 2007
