Stargazer

Paul F Walsh

 

Today is my birthday in 2021. The best early birthday gift that I ever received is Susan Louise Harvey. Susan and I grew up at either end of Lambton Park, but we did not knowingly meet until we were adults, and we then discovered that we shared the same childhood memories such as Lambton Library, the rotunda and the old steamroller. We went on to discover a bizarre similarity in the school subjects that we had studied (including Latin), and we noted a curious congruency in that we had both studied mathematics at the University of Newcastle. Our time at the university had even overlapped, but we had managed to studiously ‘not knowingly meet’ until we eventually met at the then Hamilton Marist Brothers High School on Friday May 25 1984. While drinking in the monastery that afternoon at a farewell party for Susan’s predecessor, Susan and I talked astrology for what seemed like hours. I eventually went home, and I wrote this poem Stargazer dedicating it to ‘a friend at first sight’. Happily, the sentiments in this poem remain true to this day, thirty-seven years later.

 

Stargazer

with honest eyes

you bring forth sunshine

from cloudy skies

You warm my soul

in a friendly way

I hope to know you

some starlit day

 

 

Copyright Paul F Walsh 1984