There’s a stillness here now, I knew it would come,
I sought it as a friend knowing that one day
It would arrive unannounced and stay
For as long as I needed it.

No - not as long as I needed it, but to the end.
And I realised that it was the watcher,
The night friend, the calmer of fears, the bringer
Of courage, the setter of example, the peacemaker.

Would that I could speak to this stillness, this
Shroud shadow, if only to know its name, and to ask
That it won’t let my courage fail me, desert me.
I must show my children how it should be done.

After all, you only get one chance, don’t you,
To show them that you are a man, that courage
Unbending is the essence of who you are.
Ah well, it will be alright on the day.

John Pirtle
2004