This Forever(For Janice) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

I awake
to the morning after

the night before
we first

made love

your nakedness
still etched

in all its lovely sleepiness

upon white white sheets
startling in its beauty

as if
a gift

a God
had left

for this

mere mortal
I

made now
beautiful

by your love.

Your love!

Outside the window
the perfect day appears

the sun sketching in
the gist of things

(to come)

before painting it to perfection
later

later on

using only the colours
of our love

to achieve such
...such...

a surreal
real

realness.


A windhover
studied in stillness

graces the landscape
as I whisper Father Hopkins

“...the beauty of thee then...”

to your still
sleeping form


awakening you now to
my love

the windhover
holding its position


so it seems



forever.