July Conversation With The Blessed Virgin Poem by Michael Walker

The curtains of my bed were drawn away
Before my long-cherished desire that night.
How long I stayed with her I cannot say,
She who was dressed in white and shined with light.

The door had opened of its own accord
At the threshold of the chapel stair.
Upon my knees I flung myself forward;
To look at her face I could hardly dare.

There passed the sweetest moment of my life!
Wherever we went, all the lights were lit
At the altar where I bear my strife,
Where with the Blessed Virgin I did sit.

All tapers burning, as for Midnight Mass,
I heard the rustle of her silken dress
When she appeared to me at long last
With a beauty I cannot express!

She shines with the whiteness of the dawn,
Glowing in her flowing rays of light,
But then, she fades away, and she is gone,
A candle blown out, a shadow in flight,
And I will not sleep the rest of the night.

O Mary, may I have recourse to Thee;
Conceived without sin, from my sin free me!