To Have Loved And Lost Poem by Jack Rolph

I look back over the years that grow ever distant
and I remember when I was told by a man greater than I:
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.'
Thus I resolved to heed his words, and with a smile began my quest
to seek a love that would outshine the heavens
and understand those words,
that echoed deep within my soul.

As I travelled through the endless desert of life
I found an oasis, that beaconed me towards her,
promising me to quench my thirst
and to give the fulfilment I had been deprived,
yet as I drew closer to her warm embrace,
the promises she held for me
and the refuge that she offered,
ever more did she seem contrived.

As I neared she drew further away,
so I staggered onwards as she whispered my dreams,
reaching out for my saviour with my fingertips
only ever barely grazing her form,
and then one day as I lay upon the scorching sand, exhausted,
I thought to myself how I wished I were home,
and then I realised that it was better to have nothing,
than something I could never have.

His words will always be greater than mine,
but today they're of a different time.