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Desolation
David William Paley
There was a time when dawn was golden
Before the fog embraced those distant days.
But now the morning has met the sunset
That closed the day in a chest of iron
And left my thoughts to the night beholden.
I spoke of love that lived beyond the hour
And praised the heavens for their smiles
But my words are scattered to the winds
And the echoes have returned to mock me,
For remembrance is a thorn as well as flower.
Those words now sound perpetual sorrows
Since that cloud of darkness lingered here
And cast a shadow over sunbeams
To draw a host of tears from heaven's reign
And drench my life through all tomorrows.
Who can aid in loss and sadness
In this summer turned to winter,
Bearing all alone with no one by me
Closed from sun and light
And knowing no more gladness?
With no companion but the graveyard
I join the cypress and the yew
And bend with weeping willows
Beneath the never ending burden
Of a heart that yearns for love now barred.
The rain will beat and the snow will fall
But I take them as my solace
And let those clouds shed leaden drops
To fill the depths of desolation
As ivy winds exultant round my soul.
No better friends can be more constant
When I am subject to the thrall of Time,
That will not remove the searing pain
Or spare the skies of stormy blast
When blackest day is all triumphant.
Let warmth desert my barren hearth
And winds blow ice from arctic shores.
Let blizzards cover all my woes
And grant no shelter from this tumult
Until embraced by coldest earth.
No ray of hope will pierce my heart
Unless it be a welcome death
When, in the bleakness of the tomb,
We will be clasped forever
To live for always, never more to part.
Let boundless air be our domain
And silver stars become our house.
We shall wind through endless skies
Where fleeting Time will cease to flow
But love triumphant still remain.
© David William Paley
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