Vespers

As light departs to let the earth be one with night
Silence deepens in the mind and thoughts grow slow;
The basket of twilight brims over with colours
Gathered from within the secret meadows of the day
And offered like blessings to the gathering Tenebrae.

After the day's frenzy may the heart grow still
Gracious in thought for all the day brought,
Surprises that dawn could never have dreamed
The blue silence that came to still the mind
The quiver of mystery at the edge of a glimpse,
The golden echoes of worlds behind voices.

Tense faces unable to hide what gripped the heart,
The abrupt cut of a glance or a phrase that hurt,
The flame of longing that distance darkened
Bouquets of memory that gathered on the heart's altar
The thorns of absence in the rose of dream.

And the whole while the unknown underworld
Of the mind turning slowly in its secret orbit.

May the blessing of sleep bring refreshment and release
And the Angel of the moon call the rivers of dream
To soften the hardened earth of the outside life,
Disentangle from the trapped nets the hurt and sorrow
And awaken the young soul for the new tomorrow.
— John O'Donohue. Eternal echoes. Perennial, 1999, p. 271.