Poem: The Grass So Green

The Grass So Green

for Ruth Marion Dignam née Messmer, 1957–2024

In early spring the grass so green

the birds are dating in the trees

I live in love where love has been –

The hugs I’ve had the smiles I’ve seen,

the morning sun and gentle breeze,

in early spring the grass so green

The rooms are empty now, and clean,

I walk uncluttered halls with ease –

I live in love where love has been

Not long ago I groaned and keened,

buffeted by stormy seas,

in early spring the grass so green

There are longer gaps now between

the squalls that bring me to my knees

I live in love where love has been

My girl my love my heart my queen,

slowly fading by degrees

in early spring the grass so green

I live in love where love has been.

Living in Adelaide since 1986, Paul Dignam was born in Sydney and spent his childhood years there. In a career in psychiatry of over four decades, he had especial focus on child and adolescent mental health, along with holding senior clinical, leadership and lecturing roles. Retired and widowed, with many children and grandchildren, his further interests are in drawing, writing and reading, rowing and walking, and psychotherapy supervision. With his first published piece being in the 2011 edition of the Jesuit journal Eureka Street, Paul has found ‘an increasing sense of poetry as an emotional diary, for the last twenty years or so’. More can be found about Paul here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Giles Laurent