The Muse Returns

I sit and ponder days gone by
Forgotten feelings, low and high
Of lovers lost, and wasted tears;
A winding road of broken years

My thoughts again return to views
Of young man's song, the gentle muse
Too shy to say without a verse
An unrequited lover's first

Time flows on within the game
To find anew the soul aflame
Found in another heart's refrain
The joy slips once more into pain.

Wandering lost, no song to sing;
Too tired to care or see a thing
The muse again returns, but why
So short a stay, then time to fly

Jaded, sated, music faded
Abandoned lines, heart abated
Yet in the dark I found once more
The quiet building of love's score

Too long the muse without a face
Without a song, or love's embrace
Again to stir, awaken, sing
Forgetting lost love's bitter sting

What might have been, left in the past
Echoes of this story's cast
Of wisdom, pain, uncounted tears
The lover's song again appears.