Everything Is Going to Be All Right
How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The lines flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.
Notes
After so much attention to what we are bound to lose, Derek Mahon begins almost stubbornly with reassurance. That there will be dying, the sea will continue against the shore, and somehow morning will still enter through the window. Hope here survives without requiring the world to become kinder; perhaps that is why it feels convincing. The contradictions remain unresolved, yet life keeps exceeding the conclusions despair tries to draw from them. October has spent its time among falling petals and fading things, but decay also leaves us the fact that the light comes in anyway. #October #DerekMahon #Decay #Hope #Poetry