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 :
