! ! One Knight's Offering (Sonnet 58) Poem by Lorenzo Costigliolo

My walls are built with boundaries firmly set -
My armor cast in iron, virtue - stone,
Impervious to all, for none I've met
Are noble, knightly, worth my time alone.

Then comes one spirit from some distant place
To soothe my ailing soul, my aching heart,
With words that smile on my hidden face
And hold my hands in his though miles apart.

He offers just himself, no loose-hung strings
To bind himself with promises unkept;
Nor dare he fly to me on broken wings
Except in dreams he had as oft he slept.

He knows me not except in voiceless verse:
No face yet seen for better or for worse.