Evening Bell

to you:

        fair siren of my distant youth

        i bring thee disconcerting truth

whom these hands have wrapped in love’s embrace

        my gaze upon thy shining face

                 who left me but to end in bitter ruth

         Truth i promised and thus do i adhere

               if you shall exercise the will to hear

                    you have sailed to distant shores

                    striven for heaven and its rewards

                           what profits she the world but not herself, dear?

                    Hark: ‘to thine own self be true!’

                         thus wisely spake the bard a pearly jewel

                         tis time to shed youth’s showy zeal

                         to find thy voice and grasp what’s real

                              to break the vows you once approved

                         Come home; lo the evening bell doth ring!

                              take up thy bow and find thee worthy string

                                    apply thine art and mastery

                                    before it grows too late to free

                                               the voices of the young who make you sing!

~e