I continue to be inspired and awed and provoked by Allen Levi’s novel Theo of Golden. This poem is inspired by a letter in the book about how newborns reach for faces, for connections in seeing and being seen…
Find a face today
choose the eyes
dare to lock in
to awe-gaze
within the
silky colours
of the soul’s
waiting windows
nod or smile or
swallow or blink
be brave in the
brief engagement
the moment will
glue two broken
bits in your body…
suturing a suffering
that face you found
those eyes will
see you too
the glory of
silent love
will last
for hours
or longer
VANESSA SHIELDS 