<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="MsoNormal">The Wings of Love<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal">I will row my boat on Muckross Lake when the grey of the dove</p><p class="MsoNormal">Comes down at the end of the day; and a quiet like prayer</p><p class="MsoNormal">Grows soft in your eyes, and among your fluttering hair</p><p class="MsoNormal">The red of the sun is mixed with the red of your cheek.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I will row you, O boat of my heart! Till our mouths have forgotten to speak</p><p class="MsoNormal">In the silence of love, broken only by trout that spring</p><p class="MsoNormal">And are gone, like a fairy’s finger that casts a ring</p><p class="MsoNormal">With the luck of the world for the hand that can hold it fast.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I will rest my on my oars, my eyes on your eyes, till our thoughts have passed</p><p class="MsoNormal">From the lake and the sky and the rings of the jumping fish;</p><p class="MsoNormal">Till our ears are filled from the reeds with a sudden swish</p><p class="MsoNormal">And a sound like the beating of flails in the time of corn.</p><p class="MsoNormal">We shall hold our breath while a wonderful thing is born</p><p class="MsoNormal">From the songs that were chanted by bards in the days gone by;</p><p class="MsoNormal">For a wild white swan shall be leaving the lake for the sky,</p><p class="MsoNormal">With the curve of her neck stretched out in a silver spear.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh! When the creak of her wings shall have brought her near,</p><p class="MsoNormal">We shall hear again a swish, and a beating of flails,</p><p class="MsoNormal">And a creaking of oars, and a sound like wind in sails,</p><p class="MsoNormal">As the mate of her heart shall follow her into the air.</p><p class="MsoNormal">O wings of my soul! We shall think of Angus and Caer</p><p class="MsoNormal">And Etain and Midir, that were changed into wild white swans</p><p class="MsoNormal">To fly round the ring of the heavens, through the dusks and the dawns,</p><p class="MsoNormal">Unseen by all but true lovers, till judgment day</p><p class="MsoNormal">Because they had loved for love only. O love! I will say,</p><p class="MsoNormal">For a woman and man with eternity ringing them round</p><p class="MsoNormal">And the heavens above and below them, a poor thing it is to be bound</p><p class="MsoNormal">To four low walls that will spill like a pedlar’s pack,</p><p class="MsoNormal">And a quilt that will run into holes, and a churn that will dry and crack</p><p class="MsoNormal">Oh! better than these, a dream in the night, or our heart’s mute prayer</p><p class="MsoNormal">That O’Donaghue, the enchanted man, should pass between water and air</p><p class="MsoNormal">And say, I will change them each into a wild white swan,</p><p class="MsoNormal">Like the lovers Angus and Midir, and their beloved ones, Caer and Etain</p><p class="MsoNormal">Because they have loved for love only, and have searched through the shadows of things</p><p class="MsoNormal">For the Heart of all hearts, though the fire of love, and the wine of love, and the wings.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- James H. Cousins</p></body></html>