The subtle art known as diplomacy
is well enhanced by what you bring to it:
a cheerful, and unfailing, courtesy;
a sense of nature's daily poetry;
and---foremost!---resonant humanity.
Such traits are lacked by many, not as fit.
Of Ireland, you are representative,
bearing these same aspects She has to give.
(For me, you photographed a dead poet's tomb,
and spoke of June sixteenth, the day for Bloom
and those who find Ulysses is a choice
experience of words by Mr. Joyce.)
Success will crown your work, on any shore
you visit, Deputy Ambassador.
ENVOI
I cannot let this sonnet just come to an end;
or make it worthy, to post on postpoems, or send:
without this promise---I shall always be your friend.
Starward
[jlc]
Author's Notes/Comments:
Because of the nature of this poem, a few notes are in order. Line 9: of her own volition, Carol walked through the Dublin Cemetery to locate, and photograph for me, simply at my request, the tomb of former Ambassador Denis Devlin (1908-1959), himself a diplomat as well as poet.
Line 10: June sixteenth is the day chosen by James Joyce for the nearly events described in his novel, which is named line 11. Carol sent me some links for the Bloomsday celebration in Dublin.
I do not usually attach an Envoi to the sonnets I have written; but, again, the celebratory nature of this poem requires an Envoi. To set it off from the sonnet metrically, I have written it in Alexandrines rather than iambic pentameter.
Envoi line 3: In his biography of Paul Claudel, French Ambassador and also a poet, Louis Chaigne reports the first meeting of Claudel with the Mayor of Lyons; in during which the Mayor quoted a line of an ancient poet, comparing the purple sunset on a column of marble to the blush on an adolescent girl's cheeks. At that moment, Claudel later wrote, he said to himself, "This man will always be my friend."
