Letter from Mary Helen

I have read your letter once again

And felt the torment you passed through

You shall not suffer it again

Having left the body to renew

Your spirit and allow it rest.

You were so strong, you anchored me

And made me feel supremely blessed.

Your loving care was like a tree

Against whose trunk my soul could lean,

Whose branches kept the sun away,

Your solicitude so rarely seen,

Cradled the night and held the day

To comfort me in my distress.

Alone I live and working still

Though somehow to me the world seems less

Beautiful and cannot fill

The emptiness of empty years,

The loneliness that does not leave

But breaks the stoic wall with tears.

But for myself, not you I grieve

For you have found your peace, and I

Remember you at each day's close,

Your quietness, your dignity,

Your eyes, those limpid pools of love.

Look down on me from heaven-heights

In these solemn years through which I move

To bless my days and star my nights.