Her Eyes

Recently I was blessed to spend my first-ever private time with Siobhan Robinsong (learn more about Siobhan here), co-founder of the Community Choir Leadership Training program (I'm a graduate), accompanied by a dear friend. 

The number of songleaders, singers, and other humans whose hearts Siobhan has touched in her lifetime, and the many ways, the profound depth, the unique magic of her touch -- truly astonishing. She is a gift to our world.

This experience was among the most deeply moving experiences of my lifetime. Here is the poem that came through thereafter.

her eyes

with such tenderness

you caress her hair

look lovingly into her eyes

and something unspoken passes between you

she smiles

you laugh and start a song

she joins you

singing a word here

a line there

her eyes

those eyes

never leaving yours

and mine – transfixed by this sacred harmony

suddenly she is scat-singing

as if channelling Ella

and as the sounds rise and fall

and dance around the walls of her simple room

shrieks echo through the hallways

piercing the veil of magic

reminders of body’s and mind’s decline

yet also of a soul unbowed

by disease’s inexorable march

we three sing of more love

and then it is time

for you and i to take our leave

she stands

i stand

i reach my hands out for hers

and as her warm blue eyes gaze into mine

time stops

the weight on my heart lifts

and a presence moves through me

it is as if the eyes of God

traverse the entire depth and breadth of my soul

and linger there

undefended

wordlessly telling me: i see you

i leave with you

shaken

by the beauty of your love for her

    and hers for you

by the fragility of her life

and by this holy experience 

of being so fully known

as if for the first time

it is her eyes

her warm blue eyes

that I cannot

   will not

forget