The poem
We met under a shower of bird-notes. Fifty years passed, love's moment in a world in servitude to time. She was young; I kissed with my eyes closed and opened them on her wrinkles. `Come,' said death, choosing her as his partner for the last dance, And she, who in life had done everything with a bird's grace, opened her bill now for the shedding of one sigh no heavier than a feather.
Is there another poem in all English literature that more poignantly, more deftly, or more honestly describes the end of a long marriage, the end of a love's life?
Fragility,beauty,sensitivy and the passing of time have all come together in this haunting selection and ordering of words.A poem to arrest you and make you still.
Re comment 2:Yesterday I inadvertently made the mistake of checking the incorrect box under "show E-mail address". I should have checked "no" and not "yes". Could you please correct this for me. Thank you. (Signed) Tony Earl