Heavenly Father
For just a second let me give You all
Of my attention; just a moment when
I sit and bit by bit vaguely recall
An instant long ago, a specimen
From childhood to call me back again
To an unwonted warmth, a tenderness
I could at last believe in, more or less.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Agape Review, America Magazine, Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic, Grand Little Things, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.
Jeffrey, thank you for this contemplative work in Rhyme royal. The speaker’s plea could leave the reader sad, but instead you have made it calming.