Classic Poem

I have derived all beauty from denial,
All grace from darkness, wonder from dismay;
And strength has come, with wisdom, from betrayal;
Vision from anguish, grandeur from decay.
The flesh holds empire only for a while;
A dream, however frustrate on its way,
Burns starward through a deathless mile-on-mile.
Only the feasts and satisfactions slay.

So from the white refusal of your lips,
The exile in the gesture of your hands,
Release has come for all my sunken ships
Straining to re-essay the final strands.
So from the unlit altars of your eyes
Is born in me new consequence of skies.