Eros Redeemed

An Irish Blessing

A BLESSING FOR EROS

When you love, may you feel the joy
Of your heart coming alive.
The way your lover’s gaze
Lands on your eyes, holding them
Like the weight of a kiss,
Deepening.

May the words about you
Reach you and fluster
Your held self
The way a silhouette of breeze
Excites a meadow.

When you are touched,
May it have all the gentleness
You desire,
Your lover’s hands sending
Each caress deep into your skin
Like a discovering glance.

May your skin sing
To the music of a slow
Rain of kisses.

May your desire flow free
And never be fettered
By the thorn-chains
Of crippled touch
Or old guilt.

May you believe
That your dignity of soul
Loves the glow of your skin,
The smoulder of your eyes
And the flame of eros in you.

May your pleasure
Be wild and sacred
And never be dulled
By blighted thought.

May you recognise
The purity and innocence
Of your eros
As the child of your heart.

In the gaze of your lover,
May you see clearer
In the mirror
Of your own being.

May the silences between
Be spaces where you
Can gather swiftly,
At ease with all
The subtle complexity.

May you be able to listen in
To your lover’s heartbeat
And think only of the joy
You can awaken.

May you be able
To let yourself fall
Into the ocean rhythm,
Unfolding ever more
Until you become
One crest of wave,
Rising into wild form
Whose beauty will show
In the graceful sweep
Of its home-breaking.

John O’Donohue To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (2008)