Drawn To Black

Wreathed in silence, laid down in shades

Swathed in regrets, deluded astray

Forgotten in half-light, drawn in despair

Soothed in slumber so dreadful and fair



Rending and searing and twisting my dreams

Alone in the gloom with the nightmares unseen



The night has a thousand eyes,

And the day but one;

Yet the light of the bright world dies

With the dying sun



The mind has a thousand eyes,

And the heart but one:

Yet the light of a whole life dies

When love is done



Worthless the pledges, all vows but lies

Fateful her kisses, where a serpent hides

First beckoned to step from the twilight to glare

Then left in the dark for the demons to share



Only the stars see, only the moon hears…



And quietly the water-lilies sigh

Like the last breath of a weary soul

And the weed sway in the dreary waters

Like a girl’s dark hair they wave about



And the black stones under my bare feet

Cold and smooth like her milk-white palm

And the silence which falls upon this shore

Resounds now louder than oncoming storm



For all is gone



(Chorus is taken from Francis William Bourdillon’s poem The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.)