Mary Lee’s poems have appeared in Skylight 47; Orbis; Crannog; Galway Literary Review, 4; The Linnet’s Wings; The Poet’s Search for God,(anthology, Eyewear publishing, UK); The Furrow and Spirituaity, etc. Her poetry collection Bloom was published by ReJoice publishing, 2016. Her work has been broadcast on RTE 1, A Living Word. She has a background in psychotherapy and spirituality and draws on her former experience to write.

Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

                                                 after Nazim Hikmet

I always knew I loved silent moments when
wonder creeps up beside me with a nudge –
a cup of coffee –
the steam warming my face
like the scent of a lavender candle.

I always knew I hated
qualms clanging in the background
that rob me of the luxury to exhale;
flimsy deceptions of resistance, habits
of distraction when I care too much
what others countenance me to be.

I always knew I loved tiny theophanies:
hues in eyes, transformative smiles;
the sound of rain on window panes;
bare trees; a warm bedspread;
the wonder of hot water on leaves
and ground beans; the smell of baking bread.

I always thought I wouldn’t like wine
until my initiation. I always knew
I didn’t like jostling crowds, embodied
smells and loud bells during gathered worship
until I realised these are harbingers
of transcendence to alert attention’s dimness.

Words can only hint at my heart’s dance
when I yield to  immersion
in grace’s grandeur –  everything I always
knew and didn’t know, dissolves in the beauty
hidden in a moment’s variety.

Hope

Elegant as swans on Claddagh’s
tranquil waters.

Internal currents
keep each other’s un-knownness

alive. A gentle breeze from the Weir
raises secret hairs on their legs.
Unseen choruses sing with the sea.

When storms bellow, discord
induces insight – patience summons
space:

they entrust themselves to the angel
of unfolding hope.