1
Goodbye, goodbye my darling,
Goodbye to all our past.
Love that hovered trembling
Has sprung away at last.
But Oh before that shudder,
Before that final spring,
The towering of his glory,
The splendor of his wing!
2
The quiet and usual word
We took for granted,
The word we wanted
And always heard,
Two vowels, two consonants,
The female and male word
Monosyllabically one
That was our union --
The word 'Love' has fallen
Most suddenly apart,
And my hampered tongue
Lacking the vowels it wants,
Stricken to consonants,
Speaks everything wrong,
Has no speech at all,
Has lost its calling,
The sweet vowels gone.
3
Now, my darling,
Oh now good-bye:
Love's wings are furling
In our present sky.
And we walk apart
Away from the other's
Abandoned heart,
While difficultly
The mind smothers
Grief for We
Become You and I.
Oh we walk slowly,
But forever, away
From the once half holy
Place of our day,
Knowing our love
Is done, is done.
Yet though we starve,
Braver alone.
4
"The longest love is
this:
To love and not to have.
To thrust love overboard,
Makes love most safe."
I'd heard such things before;
Foolish (I thought)
To save by loss. But now
I know it's not.
Oh lovers, learn that love
Does more than drown
When thrust overboard; it
forever
Anchors you for its own.