Love, a Sense of Immortality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

[Update June 24th 2018: Two friends of mine, Jim and Amy, are getting married in Cambridge today. Sadly, I am not well enough to go so they asked if this poem could be read during the service as then I would be there in spirit. It was a lovely thought and I was thrilled to agree without even having to think about it, especially as it will be read by the bridegroom's mother, an old friend from my student days back in the early 1970's who I know will read it well, I hope you will all join with me in wishing Jim and Amy a long and happy life together as man and wife.]

Meanwhile...

Not only is love is much the same the world over, but it is nearly always the case that anyone who comes between two lovers has either a bigoted axe to grind against one or both of them or is simply a socio-cultural-religious anachronism in this crazy, mixed-up, 21st century of ours.

LOVE, A SENSE OF IMMORTALITY 

I have greeted chimes of midnight,

lain beside you at the toll for one,

while half-dreams flow into starlight

nurturing a life force barely begun

I have heard the clock ticking over

for the passing of happy hours

nor shall, when it stops, run for cover,

but embrace a time forever ours

I have heard sweet songs at sunrise,

watched the last stars slip away,

the dawn of time in Love's bright eyes

promising (another) beautiful day

Where nature pauses as days grow cold,

lovers dream on beyond a growing old

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2018

[This poem has been slightly revised from the original as it first appeared under the title 'The Night Watch' in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007.]