Intensive Care

The moment wakes when I must leave aside

Hills wreathed in cloud, low mountains, green sea-scapes

Ruffled and scattered by the wind and tide

Streaming under the sun, fresh tang of grapes,

The savour of warm lips. Then I shall say

Farewell to days in all their varied shapes,

Nightfalls when stars transcend the Milky Way,

Tasks uncompleted, visions unfulfilled,

To small achievements, failures and the grey

Shoals of disappointment. Angels will build

A light through final dark. I shall not cease

To miss you more than life, your garden, tilled

And breathing, all your love and fire, your trees,

Young children, friends, our joy in dappled shade.

There is for us a path to further peace,

For there is one who knows, since he has made

And summoned out of silence all true things,

An infant’s cry, wet sand, bright pebbles laid

Under the streaming water, ravens’ wings,

The honeyeater’s flutter, knows the sound

Of enmity and bitterness that sings

A dreary chant of guilt. He makes the ground

I rest upon and wait in this last room

Of time. He grants his mercies. They astound,

Beyond the halls of suffering that loom.

And harmonies of endless wisdom bloom.

Michael Robinson lives in Western Australia. His poems have appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. He has published three books of poetry and has won the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the Tom Collins Poetry Prize. His most recent book, The Wounds of Faith, was published in 2023.