THE PAIN NOW (THE JOY THEN)

I wrote this 12 years ago after my friend lost his wife. They had a very young daughter. Today I noticed on Facebook it was the anniversary of her death and I had a vague memory of this poem. I never felt it was finished or right. Anyway, I post it for Andy and Cara-Grace and in memory of the lovely Donna. 

THE PAIN NOW

They say the pain now

Is equal to the joy then

So I see these tears as harvest

Of the laughter planted when

I saw her as more than a friend

I took her as more than a wife

She gave me more than a daughter

She made my moments much more than a life

So I’ll bring you to her grave

Every year in summer solstice June

And trace her name across this tombstone

Beneath a romantic sunset moon

And then on the twenty first day

Of a leaf turning late September

The things your father will not forget

He will teach you, so you remember

When God gave the gift of love

Like so often he poured it out lavish

But it can be so quickly stolen back

At the hands of death’s demented savage. 

 

Belfast – October 5, 2003