Now that I'm in the afternoon of life
    love is even more a mystery
    than when I tottered first on feet
    and splashed thru puddles I thought deep.
  
    My partner now of forty years, says
    when I was young and first we met
    I was so lonely that it hurt
    to see me walking down the street.
  
    And yes, I am aware
    of warmth and care that wraps me round
    and keeps me steady day to day
    as my balance and my hearing age.
  
   For there’s real affection in this home
   and that is why I cry out loud“I love YOU”
   so all will hear the truth even though
   love remains to me a boundless mystery.

In a dream
I strolled on gravelled paths.

Two immortals passed
laughing
one held the moon
the other held the sun.

One ying one yang.
Why were they laughing
why was one wet
why was the other dry?

Behind them
flowed a river
Venus lit
with floating free
an empty boat.

I thought of
Li po and Li fu
friends
from an ancient past
had I just met them?

If that were so
where was the wine
and where the porch
on which to sleep?

The sages strolled.
I turned to see
where they had gone
surprise!
they were not there.

Instead, a painting
a fantastic mount on canvas
rose to bar me
from returning.

It looked so real!
Peaks, needle sharp
massed to the sky
steep canyons
twisted, turned.

Cliffs, with strange trees
were fringed, with
high falls of water
hidden by
mists and dense clouds.

Into this stupendous scene
the pair had stepped.
Scared, I turned to look
where I would go.

I saw no river
no path
no road
no anything.