When my wife Alicia became ill in 2009 I started writing her little poems. She sadly died on 31st. May 2010. I'm posting a few of them as an expression of my love for her.
On our tomorrows.
Were I one of God’s angels
And knew what lies ahead,
I’d hold your heart in my heart;
And walk you through golden meadows,
Aglow with hope-filled sunlight.
No shadows cast by doubting fear
To slow your steps;
But in dappled shades of memory,
Those lost, and now remembered,
Would rush to welcome you home.
But I am no angel,
And can only discern
The now and saddened present;
So I hold your trembling hand in mine.
And under fearful darkened clouds
Stumble on with uncertain steps.
Yet I carry you in my heart;
And hope-- no, rather believe and pray,
That welcoming cries, and recollected smiles,
In eternal sunlight lie ahead!
The name of Love.
When I was young I chose to rest
In a beautiful garden.
And the gardener’s name was God.
“Rest here,” He said,
“One day you will understand.”
So I rested then beneath shading trees,
Amongst fragrant flowers and shrubs,
Far more than I could count.
Then, close beside me, a flower appeared,
More beautiful than all the rest.
“What flower is this?” I asked
The gardener whose name was God.
“I call it Love,” He made reply,
“But you may call it what you wish
When you have learned to know.”
So I have stayed; the flower has bloomed,
Its fragrance fills my soul.
I’ve learned to love, to understand
And come to know that flower
By name….. Alicia!
On not knowing.
Shall we envy those who know what is to come?
Who know what their tomorrows will bring?
What they’ll do next week,
Or month, or year?
No; for what we have is now.
Our past has brought us here,
Our future’s yet to be.
Now is where we are,
And now is all we have.
Love is now, eternal without end,
Begun in time, but lived today;
Love is. That’s all we need to say!
Let others know what the future will bring,
I’m content in the loving, and in loving today.
I also came up with a sort of 'God prayer' which she really fell in love with and kept handing out to all the other patients in her ward. It's based on the Old Testament principle that a persons name not only defined who they were, but more importantly what sort of a person they were.
Before Time was.
Before Time was, I knew you by name.
It was I who called you forth
from nowhere.
And I carry you now in my arms,
Like a mother close to my breast,
I carry you through it all.
For you are my child, my Beloved,
Both now and forever. Amen.
