in my ribs your laughter reigns, a swan-bone flute the wind plays just to hear.

I lay my ear to stone and beg it for relief

Beneath the sloe-bough, when the last birds thin to air, I hold your hand as if it were a small, warm shore.

A snowdrop, Love, that stoops as if to pray beneath the snow, Prove of Love’s metaphysics: it falls, yet ever grows.

What crazed the light has silvered into prayer; the water’s argument with heaven, unresolved. The air changes to salt, and salt to air, and all the churning deep is somehow absolved.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #vss365

As blatant Day doth blind the stars from sight, So Love’s loud flame doth dim all lesser light. #vss365

SEE MY GRIEF ~~~~~~~~~~~ Beneath the frost-unfastened yew I stood, Where dawn unstitched the night with threads of pale, And felt my sorrow root like winter wood Whose sap runs slow when gentler seasons fail. #vss365 1/4

My heart, when scourged by fear, grows winter-pale, Yet finds a summer in Thy gentle breath; Thy cross becomes my raft through fear’s dark hail, A saving vessel sailing over death Where drowning fears rise crowned in living faith. #vss365

The pale moon pulls both tide and soul to prayer; God’s silver hook that draws me from despair. #vss365

My pale hands, once baptised in salt and spray, Now clutch at dust; O what a fool was I To think God’s temple stood in fields of clay! The sea was Scripture writ with giving eye: Lord, drown my pride, let me by the sea lie. #vss365

My blood beats green through vein and bone, Each pulse the proof I’m not alone. Inside I taste the hawthorn’s thorn, Life breathing life till life is worn. #vss365

My blood (once wild as rivers swollen full with spring’s allure) will course through channels straight! No more my heart’s soft moon will wax and pull my tides to rock. He is a wolf in wool, A nightshade fruit As sweet as heaven’s gate Here is my heart, a hungering fool.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #vss365

From His bright wound the living waters rise, And wash the dust where my dark gardens lay; The thorn once crowned upon His sacred brows Now flowers as light along my hidden way. Let every leaf that stirs in wind and rain turn green in spring with praise. #vss365

I write no more of wounds; My pen turns thorn each time I near their seams And creatures scratch against the margins of my dreams. #vss365

Soul Pain ~~~~~~~ The body’s wound may bind with herb and clay, But soul-torn gardens lie beyond the sun. No mortal salve can touch that withered way Where thorns grow inwards till the heart is done.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #vss365

~~~ As roots entwine beneath the oak unseen, And life ascends where two trunks fuse as one, So soul meets soul in spaces in between Where otherworldly logic joins the moon and sun. ~~~ So love’s soft story proves that Death is Life become.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ~~~ #vss365

When dawn breaks cold upon the frost-touched rose, And petals hold the shadow of the night, Two souls, like rivers meeting, interpose. #vss365

My shadow keeps secrets when my sunlight died (𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴). #vss365

The shadow-shore divides what burns from what Remains unlit. The cloud is God’s breath caught Between two darks; the water hoards its gold Like scattered coins the ferryman won’t hold. I stand where evening splits its seam, and see The things that separate the drowned from me. #vss365

The Graveyard Where mem’ries bleed and ivy claims the wall, I wear the shadow’s cloak and cast none at all. #vss365

Oh soothing descent of evening rain #vss365

Soft stars like scattered pollen drift through night, And nebulae bloom gardens cast in peace; The cosmos spins a web of ancient light, And constellations feed the soul’s release. Though heaven vast may soothe the mortal fear, We’re woven still in threads that hold us here.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ #vss365

As rivers wind through shadowed glens and lose themselves in stone, So too my thoughts meander deep through valleys all my own.

where soft winds sigh the swallows fly upon the cusp of light #vss365

As willow bends to kiss the river’s face, My soul inclines to thee, its water’s grace. #vss365

The river folds its wisdom into bends, A quiet creed the patient waters keep. It runs where thought grows drowsy and descends Into the trust that learns itself in sleep. Its murmur tutors stone in gentler art, That God moves most where patience strains the heart. #vss365

When snowdrops lift the winter’s seal From hushed and waiting ground, They murmur what the roots reveal Soft under sleeping ground. A faith of white is newly born Before the fragile morn. #vss365

I Wish You Peace ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As morning dew lies pure on unturned earth, So may your soul find rest in simple grace; My heartfelt prayer: that childlike, sacred mirth Might settle soft as starlight on your face. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #vss365

You came down from your celestial sphere To stoop where I, in shadowed moss, lay low. As spring thaw melts the rivers locked all year And sets the frozen current free to flow, So did your eyes unlock my hardened heart, And taught my stagnant waters your soft art. #vss365

Don’t think apartness breaks what hearts have made. The sun will span all space to warm the stone, So too does love traverse each distant shade, For I am with you when you are alone. #vss365 1/5

When winter’s hand stills all the woodland’s rush, The dunnock’s note crafts a symphony, Each throated praise through silver- frosted hush Makes earthly pain ‘come heaven’s harmony. #vss365

The morning breeze, clueless of human haste, Caresses me with soft and silent art; The river bends, untroubled, unreplaced, Its waters tender as a beating heart. #vss365

Snow Fresh snow, soft magician, stills all the land, Turning our griefs to pearl, our scars to sleep; The world stands clueless, newly white-washed, and Forgets the wounds it swore were cut too deep. Gentle absolver, hiding pain from sight, Who teaches grief to practice feeling light. #vss365

Snowfall O gentle fraud, that crowns our pain with grace And lends despair a borrowed, blameless face.

Porcelina I touch the place where your deep currents sleep, And find my soul cast into fathoms wide. Though seas divide, their tides our hearts still keep, And any ling’ring grief is scorned, decried. And love, like shipwrecked gold, sinks, rises, flies, A weight unseen beneath uncharted skies.

Vincent ~~~ The world lay cracked, unworthy of his sight, Too blunt for the gentle mercy of his eyes. He saw what ought to be; burning, pure, bright, While all made do with dull and grey disguise. So beauty tore him open, day by day, ‘Till, painfully, he just went away. ~~~ #vangogh

Your name ignites the calm within my chest, And every wandering thought comes home to rest; The shadows fade where once my heart would roam, For love did build itself a lasting home.

I’ve ricocheted like dust through b o r k e n light My heart, a shame, spun across every gale; Now, year newborn, I plant my weight in sight, An anchored will abstraction turned to nail! #vss365

Snow visits Ireland as a tender guest, Unlooked for, shy upon the greening land; It stills the bog’s dark pulse in quiet rest And cups the thorn with a careful hand. So little time it stays, yet leaves me whole; A soft absolution for an aching soul.

Is.41:10 Fear not, soft one, though mountains quake, My hand enfolds you as the shore holds sand; What autumn dreams in gold, the spring will wake, My righteous strength becomes your trembling hand. As roots drink deep from unseen, faithful land, So I uphold: Be still, you will withstand. #vss365

I cast my heart’s cracked glass into the night, Where ebbing tides have schooled my grief to shore; The frost that bit my veins now learns the light, As dawn persuades the wounds to ache no more. Past heartbreak’s struggle, I’ll choose new spring, And teach my heart again to sing. #vss365