Yes, I regret
The scornful dissipation
Of my salad days
When I was strong,

Believe me,
They didn’t last too long,
Believe me,
They didn’t last too long.

Yes, I regret
All that I squandered
O’er the course
Of about fifteen years,

Believe me,
I’ve cried quite a sea of tears,
Believe me,
I’ve cried quite a sea of tears,

Yes, I regret
If I e’er acted cavalierly
Towards any who sought to love me
With a trusting heart,

Stevie, we were free,
Stevie, you and me,
On that golden day, was it ’68?

The decade’s last few days,
The whole wild world was crazed,
But where we were was peace,
For you and me at least,

If I stop for a moment,
I dream groves and country paths,
Green’s 'Albatross' is playing
In this our past,

Whole empires were falling,
The old ways were fading fast,
Things never last,
But you and I found pleasant peace at last,

I feel a deep, deep sorrow,
As life nears its final page,
The hard times that come with age,
It’s enough to make a good man rage,

But somehow, there’s a special sorrow,
In tears cried for love long gone,
By eyes that look back filled with pain,
At my lost angel.

I feel a deep, deep sorrow,
In promise that’s unfulfilled,
In youth that has been misspent,
In a life with so much regret,

My Paris begins with
Those early days
As a conscious flâneur;
I recall the couple
On the Metro,

When I was still innocent
Of its labyrinthine complexities;

Slim pretty white girl,
Clad head to toe
In new blue denim,
Wistfully smiling,
While her muscular black beau

Stared straight through me
With fathomless, fulgorous orbs;

And then one of them spoke
(Almost in a whisper):
‘Qu’est-ce que t’en penses?’
Until it dawned on me,
Yes, the slender young Parisienne

O how
Ruefully I pine
For mi pueblito perdido,
What I wouldn’t give,
To be young again,
And happy as I was back then.

Maria, full of peace,
Do you remember
Francis Albert softly keening
'O Amor Em Paz',
And other songs by Jobim,
Happy as you were back then?

O for
That wide-eyed
Impression of yours,
Paquita (la de Murcia),
Of your beloved Mary Lyn,
Happy as you were back then.

Just a bunch of old telephone boxes
Famous red ones that once actually worked
Now obsolete relics from the last century
Abandoned on one side of the road
About ten have collapsed and fallen over
Arranged like cars in a multiple crash
Lying there in a delightful domino effect
outside some forgotten English village

Words are everywhere.
So many, too many.
My words, your words, his words, her words, their words
But no space
No time to think back
No time to think forward
Time to think now

And we are plummeting,
Spinning and spiralling to a future that is already here.
A future where I’m begging you to please send help
I don’t know what to do
The air out here is thick but I’ve grown thin

Now I’m choking on the writhing wind,
I’m retching through my supple skin

I yearned for another,
Who wasn’t you,
But she wasn’t there,
Unlike you,
At a long lost party
In old Cambridge town.

Did I fall
Just a little for you,
While longing for another,
Who wasn’t you,
At a long lost party
In old Cambridge town.

a babe of flesh and blood,
he was born not of mortal woman
but to Kira, a fallen valkyrie.
for instead of escorting
his slain sire to Valhalla
she took him ahead a few short years,
in his own time and bore him a healthy son.
the son he was never to know,
for a new battle carried him far away.
Kira having been stripped of her powers,
could do naught but watch as her warrior died and was laid to earth.
she brought flowers to Odin's temple,
whispering prayers and offering precious tears to the Norse shrine.

I go back,
Sometimes it’s filled with pain,
I go back,
Nothing will be the same,
Precious places
I first knew,
When life and youth
And love were new,
I flow back,
Memories flow back too.