Let This Ink a Memory Be - A Poem

Let this ink a memory be,

To lie here for eternity -

That here, preserved,

It mayn't unnerve

My heart, as thoughts of what might be.

Let this page a guardian stand,

Unmoved except at my command.

Let no one see

This memory

That I recall now with my hand.

For if this ink does serve me not,

Then where have I to run, distraught?

Can I withstand

If what I've banned

Will not be kept in book and blot?

My greatest friend, my aid so vast -

Let ink not fail me here at last.

Let peace be bought,

And for me wrought,

And hold a piece of me here fast.

My own mem'ries, My Book, then, take,

That in my mind these things shan't quake;

Let these be cast

To mists of past,

That sleep come without rueful wake.

So let this ink a mem'ry be,

Severed from my heart so carefully -

To, for past's sake,

This one record take;

Free my heart from thoughts of what might be.