After the Phaedrus

I think of days long ago

—when we sat under trees in an old cemetery

( or was it by the banks of Illissus? )

where shade and stones cooled our bodies

while songs of grasshoppers filled our ears

when we were young, inspired by we-knew-not-what—

and of things we did and said.

As memory draws back to days long ago

—to moments and thoughts

of those then (and now) dead—

reminiscing recalls, too, things undone and unsaid.

In regretting losses past

—among shades of the dead—

we wander (and will) be

ever seeking lost pasts

in that Never-Never-Elysium

What Joy! to find in the face of a friend

the moment –ever present- when light bursts upon the soul!

and an infinity of days all existing in one

for then we know Elysium.