Dear Poetry, fair mistress of the mind,

You lead me to green gardens of delight

And there entice with golden voice so kind

While love and lust in vestal rhymes unite.

There heart to heart an ageless rhythm twines

Lone souls as one in sacred evensong,

Where marching measure cadenced into rhyme

Leads to that haven past the maddened throng.

So shall we meet by light of sun or moon

Or on dark eves when no such beams may fall,

By candled verse we’ll dance to timeless tunes

Where lyric lilt and rousing lines enthrall.

You are my first and ever lasting love—

No rune of flesh could yet my heart so move.