I see I have become a legend, my life, my love,
And her life and death, a legend.
In time it will all be remembered
In time it will all be forgotten
And remembered again, the wrack and refuse
Of all I did and meant and cared for
From fragments painfully regained
That is the nature of legends
And time and life and love.
So imagine my embarrassment
That what is known of me, that all I am remembered for
Out of everything I was and did,
Is my worldly love for an earthly girl
Not the symbol of Heaven’s love,
Nor the breeze dancing over the battlemenrs
To shake the laurel leaves,
The golden hills rolling away
From the waters of Bablyon where I sat down,
But the breath that moved in her real breast
And her small, individual, irreproducible smile.
24th July 2017, Cardiff
