Here Stirs The Heart
Dedicated to Elaine Kimball

What once was clothed in saddest gown
Is found with one another;
What once was dead, and broken down,
Now lives with us together.

I am surprised by love's embrace—
I'd lost my love to sickness—
I was not looking for a place
Where two are one in quickness.

And yet you give your gentle heart;
Willingly my wounds attend;
For every sorrow on my part,
Give; and giving, pain amend.

You know a part of me is gone,
There is no substitution,
And yet you offer all the dawn;
Bright sun and restitution.

So once again I find love new—
I thought I was through looking—
My heart is focused now on you,
No longer hurt and breaking.

©Phil Hodgkins 2003