Since there is no escape, since at the end 
My body will be utterly destroyed, 
This hand I love as I have loved a friend, 
This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed; 
Since there is no escape even for me 
Who love life with a love too sharp to bear: 
The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea 
And hours alone too still and sure for prayer -- 
Since darkness waits for me, then all the more 
Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore 
In pride; and let me sing with my last breath; 
In these few hours of light I lift my head; 
Life is my lover -- I shall leave the dead 
If there is any way to baffle death.