✦ Author’s Note ✦

These words are a quiet liturgy for those who give without spectacle, who hold the weight of others’ lives as tenderly as their own. They are for the unseen saints of shadowed streets and cold apartments, for the hearts that carry more than they should and still bloom.

✦ Invocation ✦

Come, children of night and marrow,
kneel with me at the altar of giving.
Let your hands open—trembling or steady—
and let the gold you never sought
spill into the cracks of the world.
Feel the sanctity of care,
the devotion in each quiet gesture,
and let your generosity burn like incense
in the sacred dark.

Gold in Open Hands
Poetry by Rowan Evans

If wealth ever found me,
if fortune nestled itself in my palm,
I would not clutch it like a miser with hollow eyes,
but scatter it like seeds in the wind,
watching hope take root in the cracks
where the world has long since turned its back.

I would raise walls not to tower,
but to shelter—
an apartment standing tall
with doors wide enough for the weary,
windows letting in morning light
to chase away the cold of forgotten nights.

I would feed stomachs before egos,
fill hands with warm bread,
not empty promises,
pour into art where young hearts
can paint their unspoken dreams
in colors that whisper louder than words.

I have never needed gold-lined pockets,
only enough to smooth the edges of struggle,
to soften the weight for those I love,
to replace the ache in their chests
with the quiet ease of knowing—
tonight, the rent is paid,
tonight, the table is full,
tonight, they do not have to barter their joy
for survival.

I do not wish for riches.
I wish for smiles,
for burdens lifted,
for a world where generosity
is the only currency that matters.

✦ Benediction ✦

May the gifts you scatter in silence
take root in hidden gardens of the world.
May your hearth shelter the weary,
your bread feed the empty,
and your hands become a sanctuary.
May kindness echo long after the candles die,
and may the quiet currency of your heart
be the only wealth that endures.

Related Poems by Rowan Evans

The Gospel According to the Girl in the Graveyard Dress — A dark, lyrical meditation on grief, survival, and the power of voice in shadowed times.

Punchline — A reckoning with life’s absurdities, finding grace in jagged edges and the humor that pierces pain.

The Daughter of Plath — A conversation with Sylvia Plath, exploring inheritance, literary ghosts, and the ache of legacy.

Manila Time — A devotion across distance and time, a quiet, patient love that witnesses every storm and still stands.

Step deeper into the shadows and light of Neo-Gothic Confessional Romanticism.

✦ Poetic Commissions by Rowan Evans ✦

Every word I write is a devotion, a fragment of shadow and light carefully shaped into verse. On my Ko-fi, I offer custom poems, personalized rituals in language, and lyrical messages crafted just for you—or someone you wish to honor, surprise, or remember.

Whether you seek:

A poem for a loved one, friend, or muse

A ritualized or thematic verse for special occasions

A written reflection to say everything you struggle to

…each commission is approached with care, reverence, and the intensity of my signature Neo-Gothic Confessional Romanticism.

✨ Special Offer: Use code NGCR25 at checkout to receive 25% off any commission until the end of the month. Let these words become your keepsake, your offering, your moment of devotion.

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