Resolve and Regret

Here is an interesting piece which the poet has an anecdote for. He tells the story of doing the dishes one evening when suddenly the first three lines of this poem emerged into his consciousness. With wet hands he fumbled about, chanting the lines to himself as he sought out paper and pen, finally finding a felt-tip marker and a roll of paper towels. Even a cursory read shows it to be of the lessons learned in his affair with "the Panther" and his subsequent "fall from grace". Regretting his conduct, but resolved to make the best of the opportunities his exile and trials brought forward, he expresses these thoughts aloud.

Resolve and Regret

Who knows what less that I'd have been
if I had lived above the sin
of love for you in times remorsed
and changed the paths where times have coursed?

To make amends for all my fall
or placed my faith in chaliced gall,
serves not to build upon the stones
where lay, martyred, these hearts and bones.

I do regret the pain I've brought
and sin I've sinned in act or thought
but it fits more the will of fate
to keep this road, well past the gate.

Who knows what less that I'd have been
if I had lived above the sin
of love for you in times remorsed
and changed the paths where times have coursed?


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.