Ships Pass in the Night

I want to sing when love comes to my heart 
but songs of sorrow linger in me still. 
We are at sea on passages apart, 
night-passing once, bathed in a mutual thrill: 
the swell, the wash of wakes, ships' lights ablaze, 
the song of sirens,tables laid for two… 
Our ships continue on their different ways; 
beyond the rim of sea and sky are you. 
The ocean's vast, erratic face is bare. 
The albatross in his incessant flight 
alone can see our kisses floating there, 
where ocean liners lingered in the night 
the roses and the wine flung on the waste, 
a momentary splash, a fleeting taste.

Silent Air

Lord,how I long to snatch 
what swiftly flew away 
and went with all despatch 
despite my plea to stay. 
Scant was the time and space 
the kindly gods have lent 
when I could stroke your face 
to heal my discontent. 
A desert route I see; 
a setting sun behind. 
I know that I am free 
but freedom is not kind. 
I walk without a will. 
I call. The air is still.

Allegory

I found your love was stronger than I thought 
Upon the brink and hesitant to leap 
I dipped a toe and by a current caught 
I tumbled headlong in the rushing deep. 

I learned to float and drift through pleasant dales 
where willows overhang their images 
and listen to the river telling tales 
of castles high and lowly villages. 

I little thought of where a river flows: 
its slow meanders, jagged cataracts 
where over booming falls the water goes 
to die of thirst in dusty, desert tracts 

but over mud and estuary to sea 
which swallows rivers great and small we passed. 
I lost you there, the river ceased to be; 
upon a lonely seashore I was cast.