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<font size=4><font color=191970>November Questions</font size></font>
<font color=191970>Where did you go
when your eyes closed
and you were cloaked
in the ancient cold?
How did we seem,
huddled around
the hospital bed?
Did we loom as
figures do in dream?
As your skin drained,
became vellum,
a splinter of whitethorn
from your battle with the bush
in the Seangharraí
stood out in your thumb.
Did your new feet
take you beyond,
to fields of Elysia,
or did you come back
along Caherbeanna mountain
where every rock
knows your step?
Did you have to go
to a place unknown?
Were there friendly faces
to welcome you, help you settle in?
Did you recognize anyone?
Did it take long
to lose
the web of scent,
the honey smell of old hay,
the whiff of wild mint
and the wet odour of the earth
you turned every spring?
Did sounds become
unlinked,
the bellow of cows
let into fresh winterage,
the purr of a stray breeze
over the Coillín,
the ring of the galvanized bucket
that fed the hens,
the clink of limestone
loose over a scailp
in the Ciorcán?
Did you miss
the delight of your gaze
at the end of a day's work
over a black garden,
a new wall
or a field cleared of rock?
Have you someone there
that you can talk to,
someone who is drawn
to the life you carry?
With your new eyes
can you see from within?
Is it we who seem
outside?
© John O'Donohue </font></center>
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See also:
[*] The Sacred Source: Life, Death, and the Survival of Consciousness[*] DSM IV: Religious and Spiritual Problems: Case Study - Dr. David Lukoff[*] Guidelines for Family & Friends[*] Schizophrenia & The Hero's Journey[*] The Thunder, Perfect Mind