Today a poem I can relate to -- I had a version of the experience -- a meeting after nearly 30 years although the emotional content was different, in fact, much more romantically satisfying. Still I was happy to find a poem on this subject which probably happens more often than younger people realize. The poet is Denise Levertov (1923-1997) who has written other strong poems that speak strongly to me.
A WOMAN MEETS AN OLD LOVER
He with whom I ran hand in hand
kicking the leathery leaves down Oak Hill path
thirty years ago
appeared before me with anxious face, pale
almost unrecognized, hesitant,
lame.
He whom I cannot remember hearing laugh out loud
but see in mind's eye smiling, self-approving,
wept on my shoulder.
He who seemed always
to take and not give,
who took me so long to forget,
remembered everything I had so long forgotten.
