Distance Lends Enchantment Poem by Edward Clapham

They say distance lends enchantment and true love
weathers all seasons; but, sometimes I wonder
whether the distance becomes obscured by changing
winds and billowing clouds.
And what is distance anyway? True, it’s the
long way home, the love on the end of a phone,
a plane ride to passion; but, sometimes, it’s the
pastures new, greener grass, tall growing poppies
that builds the dusty miles between us.
Sometimes, too, the saddest estrangement is more
the realisation that roads fork and curve apart
or that this road does not lead to a rainbow’s end.
But it’s not the end of the world: to have stood
close by as summer and winter heat and cool
affection and desire, is the very stuff of life.
If there are storms in your soul, if your emotions
undulate like a switchback (or the road through
the hills): then count your blessings, for you can
be a long time dead when you’re living.