Here Is What I’d Like to Say to You

Brave and awkward. Everything I knew I knew I do not
But isn’t it amazing how you are with me there now then
Here is what I’d like to say to you
What if you sat down to write a poem
All about miracles and affection, which is to say, of course, Love
So joyous and refreshing that you gape with awe
And for one holy moment you get to see such a profligacy of gift
Poured down like something else we do not have words for
Of music and light and colors and slabs of shimmer
We have weak words. Are you getting any of this?
(And serving as the soul who calls everyone to prayer)
Dóminus técum, brothers and sisters. The Lord is with thee, yes
Even better is the knowledge that you know just what I mean
Everyone babbles about God but I saw God this morning just as
In this life—and now, I observe with a smile, so will you . . .
Like half of something delighted to be home at last with the other half
That this is what heaven actually is. Did I miss anything? No?

—Kathleen Gunton

* Each line is drawn from a different poem in Brian Doyle’s collection, How The Light Gets In.