Willow

To understand

A little of how a shaken love

May be sustained

Consider

The giant stillness

Of a willow

After a storm.

This morning it is more than peaceful

But last night that great form

Was tossed and hit

By what seemed to me

A kind of cosmic hate,

An infernal desire

To harass and confuse,

Mangle and bewilder

Each leaf and limb

With every vicious

Stratagem

So that now I cannot grasp

The death of nightmare.

How it has passed away

Or changed to this

Stillness,

This clean peace

That seems so unshakable

A branch beyond my reach says

"It is well

"For me to feel

The transfiguring breath

Of evil

"Because yesterday

The roots by which I live

Lodged in apathetic clay.

"But for that fury

How should I be rid of the slow death?

How should I know

"That what a storm can do

Is to terrify my roots

And make me new?"

~ Brendan Kennelly ~