Poetry Archives

Since there is no escape, since at the end
 My body will be utterly destroyed,
This hand I love as I have loved a friend,
 This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed;
Since there is no escape even for me
 Who love life with a love too sharp to bear:
The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea
 And hours alone too still and sure for prayer —
Since darkness waits for me, then all the more
Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore
 In pride; and let me sing with my last breath;
In these few hours of light I lift my head;
Life is my lover—I shall leave the dead
 If there is any way to baffle death.