Of Desire and Despair

I wandered, lonely as a cloud

Grappling desire and despair

Guilt raised its fist, ugly and proud

While mercy fanned the morning air

And on the palm of lithesome breeze

A song of tender memories

Continuous as the stars that shine

Transient moments tune the air

And you, oh little love of mine

Drive my desire and despair

Come now and lay awhile with me

We’ll count the stars on heaven’s sea

The waves of time sparkle and dance

As they roll onward to a sea

Oh, ride the bark of present-chance

Before it slips to history

I’ll trade desire and despair

For this; your breath against my hair

For oft, when on my couch I lie

And you are there and I am here

Despair and deep desire vie

For residence within my tear

But now, they slip unnoticed far

Time pauses 'neath the midnight star

© Janet Martin 

NaPoWriMo Prompt: Steal a line from a famous favorite...

For my second Theft I stole from another favorite... William Wordsworth and his poem

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth :