All that has passed, and so may this.
If the mind becomes a wolf's mind,
it will force misery on misery,
make cowards heroes. If courtiers
want the kingdom overthrown, yet fail
to speak, they will remain courtiers.
All that has passed, and so may this.
At first doom sees, wherever it turns,
more doom. Then, in time: joy.
I'll say this about myself: my name
was a name you knew, and I sang
until another singer took my place.
All that has passed, and so will this.
(After the Anglo-Saxon poem, "Deor")
(Steven Cramer's poem "Singer" is taken from "Goodbye to the Orchard: Poems." Sarabande. Copyright © 2004 by Steven Cramer.)
