Now I Pray Poem by Gert Strydom

(for Annelize, after Alan Seeger)

From a young-man I have changed
but now I pray to love you once more;
even if destiny did our world rearrange.
Yet still you are dear, maybe more than before.

You have been the pulse beating in my heart,
the one in whose imperfections I do perfection see
and I miss you in many ways while we are apart,
wish our future lovelier than our past to be.

[Reference: 'After an epigram of Clement Marot' by Alan Seeger

Poet's note: I am quoting Alan Seeger's lovely poem here:

'After an program by Clement Marot" by Alan Seeger

'The lad I was I longer now
Nor am nor shall be evermore.
Spring's lovely blossoms from my brow
Have shed their petals on the floor.
Thou, Love, hast been my lord, thy shrine
Above all gods' best served by me.
Dear Love, could life again be mine
How bettered should that service be! ']