THE PRESIDENT of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, has shared an original poem of his to uplift the spirits of the nation during the coronavirus crisis.
The Irish president, 78, has been in office since 2011 and is known first and foremost as a politician, but the Limerick man is also a dedicated poet and supporter of the arts.
President Higgins took to his official social media accounts yesterday, 25 March, to share with the Irish public a poem he had penned in 1993 which illustrated the need for people to come together during trying times and emerge stronger on the other side.
“Take Care”
A poem by Michael D. Higgins: https://t.co/Forp9znu6p— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) March 25, 2020
Entitled 'Take Care', the poem, despite being written 27 years ago, resonates with the struggle the nation is enduring as the fatal coronavirus spreads across the country and the globe.
The poem is taken from his 1993 book of collected poetry 'The Season of Fire', and reads as follows:
“Take Care”
In the journey to the light,
the dark moments
should not threaten.
Belief
requires
that you hold steady.
Bend, if you will,
with the wind.
The tree is your teacher,
roots at once
more firm
from experience
in the soil
made fragile.
Your gentle dew will come
and a stirring
of power
to go on
towards the space
of sharing.
In the misery of the I,
in rage,
it is easy to cry out
against all others
but to weaken
is to die
in the misery of knowing
the journey abandoned
towards the sharing
of all human hope
and cries
is the loss
of all we know
of the divine
reclaimed
for our shared
humanity.
Hold firm.
Take care.
Come home
together.
