Acknowledging  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Read this in the dawning
When the flush of growth sings green;
When hope rises up like sap, and
Bent age is not yet a fiend.
There will be time, they said, though, in truth, you were afraid.
Oh, dare to be brave! Dare to presume!

Pour love into this battered cup
As sparkling as a diamond ring,
As dazzling as arpeggios
When the heart knows but to sing.
Only if you dare, you challenged, for the yellow fog slides in.

Lift up your face once more, dear one,
And see me for what I am, not less,
Wrapped in the magic of your tender words,
Budding like trust within my breast.
Disturb the universe, while there is time! Dare to be brave, for time will not reverse, I said.

I cradle your truth beneath my wings
Whether you bid me leave or stay.
Consider it a gift, my penance
For all I lost, for all we threw away.
You’ve always known you may presume,my Lazarus, so please begin before I’m dead.

Though few look back at the end of life,
To acknowledge the chaos that they made,
I am bold. Forgive, and take this grizzled hand
In peace, content and unafraid.
The moment of your greatness didn’t flicker as you feared. Was it worth it after all?
Or was that not it at all?