Her Light Around Me

Now and then
the air within me clears,
as if the long sorrow,
tired of its own echo,
has finally sat down to rest.

Then I see her,
not as a figure of mercy,
but as the quiet law
that holds the world together.

Around us, a circle,
not drawn by will,
but by truth.
Only those who love without wounding
can breathe within it.

Beyond it lie the voices
that once claimed me.
They fade like stars
at the rim of morning.

I do not grieve their distance.
The silence between us
is a kindness.
Even absence, when purified,
can bless.

And at the center,
her love,
not the blaze of salvation,
but the steady warmth
by which everything endures.