poem

When the World Was New

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Those heady blossoms,
I can see them now!
Once, and only one more time,
I lie down
trusting
as one who knows the summer’s day is in my heart again.
How surely can one know
how and when and where and why?
Is it not the case that even
angels
fear to tread
where hope and rays of sunlight die?

Lost to the ages
is that special time in youth
when one has dreams of knowing
that which was and is,
and that which only happened
in the mind of one who never came this way before.
Who can remember
when darkness failed to stir
the dreams of dreamers in a fantasy of dread?
The deepest recess of imagined fear
cannot be the only place where every mind and heart
recalls the emptiness that came before.

Then one day,
I fear the last but one,
it all came tumbling down around the trees in some lost garden.
Oh, to feel again!
Why does a soul shy away from pain
when pain is all that can outlast the years?

If spirits come and go,
wanting,
there is nothing left to keep for any day besides tomorrow.
If only there were fears that bleed
the blood of every joyful and forgotten sorrow,
then could I guess
the end
of the one and only true beginning.
And this world could be lost
without shame,
without the guilt of doubt and tears and wonder.

There would only be the day
that comes both in the past and in the future,
when all will begin again.
New
but also old
for the final time
that is also the first.

The Dream

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A tribute to Goethe.

I dreamed I found the golden goblet of that ancient king.
I turned it slowly in my hand and in my head did ring
a voice I recognized as his, that dear and sacred ghost.
He whispered softly, “Where is she, the one I love the most?”
And then I saw below me was a deep and dark blue sea.
My fingers opened and the goblet fell so silently.
As it disappeared I felt a tear drop from my eye.
If the king had lost his queen, was death the last goodbye?
All the years he waited with the goblet by his side
sure she would be waiting, too, the moment that he died.

Then in the dream I turned and saw the castle standing tall.
His knights on shining steeds approached the ivy-covered wall
And lo! Who led the palace troops, decked out in royal green?
None other than the loyal king and his belovèd queen!
They were e’er together in that castle by the sea!
But who, then, whispered in my ear? Who asked me, “Where is she?”
And then I woke still veiled in sadness and a certain fear
as thoughts of you ran through my mind, you who I hold most dear.
Will you want to come and find me even after death?
Or will our love just disappear upon a dying breath?

And then I heard the voice again – but it was not the king.
And my heart soared, for it was you, love surged in a wellspring.
I realized in that moment, then, that it was always you.
And like that ancient king and queen, our love is really true.

I will always wait for you, and you will come for me.
One life just isn’t long enough, but in Eternity
our souls will meet again in our own castle by the sea.