Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal

Pouring redemption for me, that I do

the will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,

Grow with nature again as before I grew.

 

The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third

Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,

And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word

 Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.

 

 O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web

Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,

Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib

 To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech.

 

 For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven

 From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

Patrick Kavanagh, Canal bank walk