Imagine A World... Poem by Maurice Harris

Imagine a world-one like you've given to me,
Where you are too afeared to be all you've striven to be:
A world where fear of an implausible future event
Becomes more important than our erstwhile love-Heaven sent,
Both in literal and figurative terms-your dream's fruition;
The complete embodiment of your life's ambition:
To find a mate for your incomparably beautiful soul-
This is what you have allowed to wither-what fear stole
From both you and me, on that fateful day before Christmas last.
You will never find this love again if you keep living in the past,
You protect yourself by pretending that it was never real,
Yet, only we two know how it is that you truly feel-
Even now, as I scribe these poignant words as tribute
To a love that naught may replace-a conviction made more resolute
With the passage of time and space from this love's loss.
You promised me that you would never again cross
The heart of mine, that loves you most completely-
Yet you betrayed both of them since that day, most repletely
And tragically, with your choice to shutter with fear.
My heart's ardor is surely real, and lives right here,
Waiting for its inspiration to appear once again:
I shall never again truly love until then.
This choice is not, and has never been, mine-
Will you continue to ignore your own, and further confine
Yourself to the mediocrity of what you allowed to be,
Or will you embrace the love you once avowed, to be! ?
You possess no basis in your fear's reality toward me,
So, why not stop looking back-look forward, to be
All that He wants for you-all that we may provide, together.
You once were so very sure-why not again decide to never
Again cede to fear, but only to love as only I know you can! ?
Fear only leads to loneliness-the heart's tragic isolation
From the one mate that provides it with inspiration:
To accept fear's determination is to ban
The heart's capacity for love, and accept mediocrity;
The human heart is made to love, anything else is hypocrisy!
I may only proffer words of advice, not make decisions for you,
And merely offer same because, despite it all, I adore you
And wish the best for you-yet, I know it must include me;
Therefore, for both selfish and altruistic reasons, I conclude, we
Must both try as hard as we may, to live for the future, not what 'was';
I can not help how it is that I feel about you, not because
Of what we once had, but because of what I know we may-
In a future where the past is left to 'lie'-
Otherwise, we will both leave 'true love', to die.

-Maurice Harris,8 June 2012