I am Thomas Learmont, Thomas the Rhymer, 
Consigned back to mortalland 
After elvish enchantment.  And today being 
A sad short Monday afternoon, 
The pull of Holyland rakes from within
and is strong.
Nothing here is sweet enough. Or full to that point 
Where bliss seems birthright.  I recall 
My first sight — drylipped and heart-taut — 
Of a sprite-lady near lakes no one has seen (yet are). 
The cleft beneath her pigeon-fat breast
(Scent-rich and red from her bodice)
Was my nestle-nest for seven years.
Ah God
The land of longing is both sky and flesh,
Flesh never felt here, here, where
The grease must always be cut from the dishes
And one’s white hose is never quite white.  Not once
Will angels hush lovewords with wet mouths
Into your ear, here (standing short hairs up your neck).
Here you think Heaven is a city full of nothing
where happy ghosts fly
But I who have lived in the folds
Of Elve-Eden seven summers I
Found and filled the creases of undying fun.  I
Tell you that what is empty here, here
this sad short afternoon
Is not empty where pigeon-fatty non-phantoms are at home,
where it is never afternoon
There in the nurseries and the star-boudoir where
Man was born and will have
(In a Godburst of light)
His honeymoon night.  Sky and flesh:
There will be cheeks from which
Tears could be wiped.
A man thinned out by disease
Will sigh, refleshed.
Here no flesh is flesh enough.
There the tankards and the glasses will ring out.
But today … while hour after hour the sun flares bronze across
The bannisters, and Wistful sprawls with
Nostalgia, no fragrance from
Her bosom wafts across
My endless acreage of dead grass.  

[Clark Elder Morrow, born in Philadelphia, is a published poet and essayist, whose work has appeared in: Mere Orthodoxy, The Reformed Conservative, Coffin Bell Journal, Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal, HCE (Here Comes Everyone), Blue Streak: A Journal, the Vocabula Review, and the Sand Canyon Review. His latest nonfiction book is Moral Majesty, Spiritual Splendor, published in 2021 by Wipf & Stock Publishers.  Morrow is also a professional award-winning actor and radio personality, as well as a national speaker on youth-related issues.  Morrow currently resides in the US state of Tennessee.]