Graced by Thirty Winters

Verses taken from my 7th book The THIRD FALL of RACE BROOK - A Poetic Novel (see www.DCQuillanStone.com for this book and others). This canto recounts when cancer was taking its final toll upon a "fair lady", thus the few fond references to poems and songs shared in conversation...

Canto XLI - Graced by Thirty Winters

Two roads diverged among masses converged, so both
Noted to fathom odd fashions for less traveled directions
Wild shattered roses, near-crushed by norms and flushed
By the storms in dreams, as consorts to maudlin schemes
He by solitude in surplus, she of dawn till dusk imminent
Independently sufficient though separately reminiscent
Per coffee cups respectively, artistic interrupts selectively
He by poetics and theories, she by lyrics and symphonies
While recollections o'er the months strengthened for Beth
Yet weakened for Sean, assuming another, not her death

Nerves by matchstick twitched to catch by each flame
The immuring games concurred in concert afforded
Flesh and bones enmeshed withal the lungs and tongue
Hungered and parched for life, so its joys mid the strife
While and within, the snake Eternity in charmed sleep
Doth laid between words and stirs, till Beth's next pang
Clanged the bell and clicked the clock, again and again
Another flame to seize, another veil to rend, and then
The cancerous fiend, and its sin, weaved serpentine
Repetitiously, viciously, as stoic she gleaned by poesies
Hence ascetic she derived and scribed her ponderings

O her years slender, graced by thirty winters, her crown
And head endowed instead by quotes and scores of notes
Versed and rehearsed the epiphanies and past symphonies
Lastly the books Beth took to heart, all like warm quilts
Although she felt her final season boreal, as she reasoned
Contempt for iatric remedy, content by death's alchemy
Nevertheless she held a single regret for the one she met
Unexpectedly, untimely, yet in perfect time, effectively
Thus she penned retrospectively, “I wish to have loved”


Algo Mas by Natalia Jiménez and La Quinta Estación
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj7LRuusFqo