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Rath de Cion by Lelia Thomas

May no harm touch neither home nor hearth,
And Great Light to you remain gleaming.
Where angels stand at your right,
While joys here are teeming.

Here there may be trials,
Where days seem rimed with shadow.
But to your heart no fear, to truth it may revere—
Clinging, through all, to love, even through sorrow.

A blessing from the King of Plenty—
To love and peace of years, come twenty times twenty.
For smiling and laughter in your eyes,
From the day of whence you marry.

Here there may be trials,
Where days seem rimed with shadow.
But to your heart no fear, to truth it may revere—
Clinging, through all, to love, even through sorrow.

May every day be as the first,
Filled and fresh like a rain-touched field.
May the brightest of suns warm your back
And never dry your throat to thirst.
May the road rise to meet you all your days
With God’s affection beside you.
With the Father’s love,
Amen.

Details

The title is Irish Gaelic for “Fort of Affection,” and the whole poem is written in the style of an old Irish blessing. Written in 2003 for a friend of mine who was getting married, this poem fits to a modified version of the tune to Greensleeves. While I was never able to finish the arrangement for violin–what I had originally intended–this is the finished poem. I printed it in elegant script on green paper, burned the edges of that page, and spray mounted it to a black matte; a brown frame was used.