C. S. Lewis Poem

[donerleg]

All this flashy rhetoric about loving you
I never had a selfless thought since I was born
I am mercenary and self seeking through and through
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure are the goals I seek
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin
I talk of love
A scholars parrot may talk Greek
But, self imprisoned, always end up where I begin.

Only now that you have taught me (but how late) my lack
I see the chasm
and everything you are, was making my heart
into a bridge
by which I might get back from exile, and grow man.

And now the bridge is breaking

For this I bless you as the ruin falls
The pains you give me are more precious than all other gains.......