The years I wasted lost in hurt and doubt!

I trusted none, to none I gave my all,

Dwelled upon myself, with flesh and stout

I drugged my demons and ignored Your call.

My demons drugged, I lived the life of one

Faithless in all I did and said,

Betrayed my love, and then, when love was gone,

Abandoned hope and fell in with the dead.

You came to me out of the abyss,

I needed help but feared that there was none,

In the dark night of the sense I felt Your kiss

And knew at last that I had found the One

On Whom I count, in Whom I live anew:

When I learned to trust myself, I trusted You.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice is a bilingual poet whose collections include The Space Between: New and Selected Poems 1984-1992 (Cló lar-Chonnachta, 1993) and A Wrenboy's Carnival: Poems 1980-2000 (Wolfhound Press, 2000)