The Handle is on the Inside of the Door
after John O’Donohue, with a passage from Anam Ċara
The door is white.
The room is white.
The rest is up to us.
Sometimes we are locked inside,
moving wall to wall,
windowless.
Some may make a skylight
and the stars offer curious company,
while others make the bed
with crisp, tight corners
yet fail to hear the song in silence.
The room is only as empty
as our imagination.
It might be a wild jungle
across the sea
as in that book by Sendak.
Only you can build the boat,
can lead the monsters dancing.
It is in the depths of your life
you will discover the invisible necessity
that brought you here.
When your restlessness expands
like a blaze inside you,
a storm will rise in the center
of the room. The urgency
of what you were born to do
will rush over you, and you will claim
what has always been yours.
You will turn the handle
and step outside,
where Heaven and Earth
will celebrate your arrival.
Alfred Fournier is the author of A Summons on the Wind (2023, Kelsay Books) and King of Beers (March 2025, Rinky Dink Press). His poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Indianapolis Review, The Sunlight Press, Hole in the Head Review and elsewhere. He lives in the foothills of South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, with his remarkable wife and daughter and two birdwatching cats.
Amethyst Review 