We two, when we were very small,
Walked hand in hand down avenues
Studded with poplars and long views
Of granite pavement, pale and tall
Sun-sprinkled shops, apartments set
Above them on whose balconies
Perched men like birds among the trees,
Eyeing our youth with vague regret—
How could we know, young as we were,
The brevity of these our strolls,
How every hour more swiftly tolls
Than the preceding? To be sure,
The marvel of our living lies
In sensing little of the thought
That what short summertime we’ve got
Measures in spans like butterflies’,
And realizing late in age
On balconies, as children pass,
Our tenure’s brief as leaves, as grass,
As words washed from the novel’s page
By tears dropped silently, this truth
Too hard to tell to little ones
Passing in hand-held joy, the sun’s
Brief rays alighting on their youth.
Art-Colored Glasses 
so touching is this piece,one cannot help it but to admire its beauty
Thank you, my friend, that’s very gracious of you.
Your poem made the ending of an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet pop into my head:
“I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.”
Lovely. Now I shall have to go and look that one up, too!
Here it is:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15420
Thank you; it’s gorgeous!
Lovely … 🙂
Thanks, my dear. I guess I felt a little like I was on a mental visit to Paris, where I haven’t gotten to visit in person in decades–maybe it’s time I found a way to get back to France. Among many other places I miss! 😀
The passage of time so beautifully expressed and with gorgeous photos! xoxo
Thank you, sweet Lauren! xo, Kath
Amazing flowers and equally amazing verse…always lovely, kathryn!
It might be a teeny bit of a cheat to illustrate a Frenchified poem with photo montages from (top to bottom) Austin TX, Llano TX, and our backyard in Denton ( 😀 ) TX–but then you know I’m kind of a big cheater anyway. xoxoxo! Kathryn
The brief journey of life … takes so long and yet goes so fast. Sometimes I look at flowers and wish they could just ‘freeze’ in their blooming, but then realize their withering and growing down into renewal is what makes them more precious. How they remind us to treasure the moments.
Lovely, lovely piece! XO ♥
I agree about the reminders inherent . . . and as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate the beauties of aging and decay in nature much more as well, precisely because I *do* have an increasing sense of their fleeting qualities. So happy you liked this piece. I think it’s one of the poems I felt especially connected to as I was writing it, for some reason.
xoxo! ♥