Diminished your esteem,
As I learned poetry concealed
The substance of a dream.
Almost as though upon a dare
I set my songs together,
Sonnets, as living proof to share
The thesis on a tether.
Many years later, now I see
In blatant retrospect
Wherefore I erred, in setting free,
Not claiming, heart’s elect.
The false steps, stumbles, courseway errant
Do only, with such time
In retrospect become apparent
From vantage of the climb.
The way was fraught. You hardly knew—
Yet what success in proof
That must be kept apart from you,
Your heart from it aloof?