To Youth

10/23/09

There was a child whose melodies

Were built on chords of love so pure

I was taken up to hear those strains

And breathed in heaven's atmosphere.

All the tenderness of youth

And its sweet songs of innocence,

My life of song renewed once more

In waves of joyous renaissance.

And yet too soon is youth dissolved

Into the maelstrom we call life

The pomp of ego dominates

Its petty wants, its petty strife.

And yet there is a residue

Of beauty that remains with me,

The memory of oneness too,

And love in its tranquillity.