as the ruin falls - clive staples lewis



all this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
i never had a selfless thought
since i was born.
i am a mercenary
and self-seeking through and through:
i want God, you, all friends,
merely to serve my turn-
peace, re-assurance, pleasure,
are the goals i seek,
i cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
i talk of love
-a scholar's parrot may talk greek-
but, self-imprisoned,
always end where i begin.
only that now you have taught me
my lack.
i see the chasm.
and everything you are was making my heart into a bridge
which i might get back from exile, and grow man.
and now the bridge is breaking
for this i bless you as the ruin falls.
the pains you give me are more precious than all other gains.


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2 comments:

  1. April 12, 2008 at 1:21 AM

    i originally read this poem in blue like jazz.
    it is something i can never get away from.

    i cannot even begin to tell you what it means to me;
    this poem is my heart.

     
  2. Yoli April 24, 2008 at 10:16 AM

    Beautiful Poem.