By Gala
Date: 16 August 2000

Ways For A Man To Be Strong

This day dawned merciless grey
and that was fitting
sunlight would have seemed an affront
when you were putting paid
to that chapter of your life
all over, but signatures
lawyers circling
the lady was yours once---
but now that is past,
and I think of you,
sitting there alone
the last celtic warrior poet
gotten beyond anger,
gone beyond blame
accepting that love
has come to this
without bitterness.
You are human,
and if there is regret
you wear it well.
I know you have done many things
that would do a man proud
but what you may never understand
is that you entered the ranks of hero today
by acting with dignity
having compassion
and being man enough
to close the book
that so many read over and over,
hoping to change the ending
of something already written.
Strange that we never acknowledge
that love requires
every bit as much courage
as any act or war.

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