The Dance of Regret

I lay awake in bed,
Waiting for sleep to bear me to
Lands of mystery, strange and wonderful,
Lands seen never in waking hour.

Yet sleep did not come and my troubled mind
Did bear me to past deeds done, past sins unatoned for;
And like a dark wind disturbed
The resting leaves of Regret
In the forest of my mind of many falls ago.

And the leaves and the wind they danced together,
They danced to the tune of Regret;

And in these verses, now, in ink made
I find the leaves put to rest
And the wind dances a lonely dance
And bears no more on it Regret,
The wind in its lonely dance now teaches
Lessons from Regret.

Yet time stays not still and the seasons change
Until fall it is once again.
And as the fall advances and the wind sings,
The leaves resume the Dance of Regret.