batem-bia

Des Moines, Iowa
State Capitol Building

a passionate and gentle voice

Whatever contact I have with hope

Is clear to me on certain mornings

When a voice slips

Into my mind like a shy

Suggestion of love

That nothing will deny.

It is a passionate and gentle voice

Authentic as a patch of sunlight 

On a floor inside a window

And it has always spoken the same words:

'I live in the stripped branch,

Dying flowers on the kitchen table,

Pools of water after a storm

Uncomprehending as children

Strayed from their parents in a crowded town.

You understand I do not exhort.

My state is one of waiting

For you, for the most part,

And I am helpless till you observe me

With your electric blood

And your eyes

Redeemed from the tedium by the desire

To know

Why something begins to stir

In utter stillness like a memory

That will not let you sleep at night

But takes possession of you

And absorbs you into itself.

So I await that morning

When you emerge

From the tired night as from a mist

Into a decision of sunlight

Where I exist.'

~ Brendan Kennelly