Beannacht

BY JOHN O'DONOHUE

On the day when

 The weight deadens

 On your shoulders

 And you stumble,

 May the clay dance

 To balance you.

And when your eyes

 Freeze behind

 The grey window

 And the ghost of loss

 Gets into you,

 May a flock of colours,

 Indigo, red, green

 And azure blue,

 Come to awaken in you

 A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays

 In the currach of thought

 And a stain of ocean

 Blackens beneath you,

 May there come across the waters

 A path of yellow moonlight

 To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

 May the clarity of light be yours,

 May the fluency of the ocean be yours,

 May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

 Wind work these words

 Of love around you,

 An invisible cloak

To mind your life.