Dreams

I dream a dream of beauty and lies

            Her skin so soft; so dark her eyes

                        Radiant as if the ocean itself, for her, hath cried.

The forest sings her name, through bough and rustled leaf

            Through wind and falling rain, such choruses achieved

I dream a dream of beauty of passion and loss

            For whom my heart longs

            For whom my heart longs

Alone, am I, breathing in again; sorrow consumes my heart

            This tragedy, becoming me, in tearing me apart

I’ve lived to love, but alas, have failed

            No gentle maiden hath, for mine eyes, herself unveiled

I’ve given e’ery day through tear and sorrowed words

            Through taxèd farce, solemn face held in reserve

Her name to know, her love to have, I’ve dreamed a dream

            A whisper, and like a ghost it has passed

                        Like a ghost at end weeping for life to last

            Her hair dancing in the wind

                        For you, for your love, I would give my soul to have.

And from my hand this whisper hath gone

            A dream

            A prayer

From beyond the trees she whispers a song

The forest, it seems, wishes a darker sky

            Leaves, as snow, fall

So that beneath them she may hide

My nightmarish sins, her skin, have devoured

            My beautiful vesper falls, bitterly deflowered

                        And in her shadow I lay, without her light I cower

No staves made to God in dismay

                        The darkness in my soul, over me, seems to tower