Well – a poem by Sheila Murray-Nellis

Well

A small circle of light swirls
through layers of clay and sand like an eye 
from the depths of the earth.

You are so delighted!
You worked with such persistence
despite the odd looks of those that passed you; 
with an auger and your brute strength, 
you bore through the gravel

and the layers of sand and clay
and finally found what you were looking for, 
what you knew was there:
the well that will allow you to stay

even when the winds whip up and the temperature drops
and the snows cover the earth with shivering silver.
You found the spring of living water welling up, 

from within the heart, the heart reflecting
that small circle of light.

Sheila Murray-Nellis is a poet and children’s author living in British Columbia, Canada. She and her husband, an Orthodox priest, are building a stone chapel on a property surrounded by the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy which they call St. John in the Wilderness Orthodox Sanctuary. Sheila has had poems published in St. Katherine Review, Windhover, Catholic Integrated Life, Mslexia, and elsewhere. For the past four years she has been Poetry Editor of St. Katherine Review, a position that gives her great joy. Her published work includes her book You Are Meant to Be Like Fire and several children’s chapter books.