Ettarre

Sun blazes on my arms
and winds alarm the trees
bushes, leaves, rustling is intense
loud disturbances, unease, the moat is rumpled
keep is strong, drawbridge down 
and my mind 
free as wind eddies round
your arms, and all my love my lips my hands
they blaze on you and warm me in your
blood - I am, will always be, the whim you chase
whatever mind or room 
you live within -
your curse -
kin we are in soul and skin
but trussed by miles and circumstances
too unkind to let us grow
but in you I will burgeon
like a young tree planted in right soil
my fingers ringing green I am
aspen-like, trembling,
and though the thunder in your voice
is far from me - your chestnut hair
your heart so large and free, your hands
and body strong - I know your heart 
mine still is
and tenderness alive and strong 
as life and breath
and all the years of all our time cannot
sunder you from me.

I drink you in, my poisoned twin, my soul too thin
from withering
and you: the one eternal even though 
this life would not
allow us twinned and true -
our days remain a living knot
entwined and mellow
I still live in you:
the one I loved to hate
and loved too late
and lost
through mine own prejudice.

I know my fear and failure
and I pine 
for what I loosed
too easily, too free
my grace and peace, my Pelleas.
Collected Works
Return to Collections all
next poem