From a Dover Clifftop

Late is the hour, later the light,
Yet I could stay up here all night,
Following, lighthouse swinging low,
sweeping beams through green shallows

Over there, shall I call it sight?
No more, red glimmer, shimmer light
of Calais, and the remnant coast
are land locked with my heart in throat

A cry from deep in that old town,
I was younger then, and easier drowned
She ran to me, then ran from me
I let her go, I let her be

They say a name denotes the past
I looked and found no sign outlasts
that name, no record, no small town
had heard the name of you around

A stranger on the cliffs of time,
A green-spun youth I thought you mine
We met out on a famed journey
to ruined castle, Leigh on Sea

I followed you down through history
but found your story ended with me
and now, I cast my eyes net far
across the black, lit sea of stars

out to the country where you are,
from this cliff top rock and scar
Were you the ruin, the end of me?
No, I spread my wings to flee,

from that hemisphere, here to be
deep in the warm southern seas,
where another now waits for me.
from ancient cliff in eternity.