Songs For Scarlett Poem by Dónall Dempsey

THE SUNLIGHT CAUGHT IN HER VOICE

The darkness
of her hair

& the blue
in her eye

sang of her

& transformed
the world

into a beauty
a child could see

notes like
drops of rain dripping

from a branch

the sunlight caught
in her voice

memory forever
holding still

the song of the blue
in her eye

the song of the darkness
in her hair.


* * * * * * *

AND THE SONG SUNG

And the song
sung to please

had its own
song

that hid
within the song

or ran in &
out among the words

like delighted child

hovering above
or lingering below

the melody line

the song of my mother
singing singing

as if her heart
would break

or break
the heart of others

the song
that sang her

hiding now
at its finish

in the toss of her hair
the tear in her eye.

* * * * * * *

EVEN TIME STOPPED TO LISTEN

In my mind
you will be

always singing

forever held
in the spell

of your voice

even Time
stops to listen

& I
always your child

lost in the magic
of your song

eternally.


* * * * * * *
I awoke at 2.30 in the morning with the image of your mother and the song of her blue eyes and black hair singing in my mind and wrote these 3 poems down as if in a dream and went to sleep again. I awoke to the morning and they were still there. I hope they do her justice. See now how you who have set her singing in your poems…set her singing in my heart now.