A Gift of Words

Because you followed
pain to its source,
led by its wail
deep into a forest

where you found me
hurt, my life a trap
snapped shut
upon me -

perhaps all
you have gained
is this reaching out,
another's pain

to comprehend,
and a gift of words:
this conversation
between us.

In their own way
two wild yet gentle animals
have also been set free:
trust and friendliness.

At the forest's edge
they hesitate, hollow-eyed,
wait for the right moment
to follow us.

^

Biography

Susan Connolly lives in Drogheda, Co. Louth. Her first collection 'For the Stranger' was published by the Dedalus Press in 1993. She won the Patrick and Katherine Fellowship in Poetry in 2001.