I have been all men known to history, <br />Wondering at the world and at time passing; <br />I have seen evil, and the light blessing <br />Innocent love under a spring sky. <br /> <br />I have been Merlin wandering in the woods <br />Of a far country, where the winds waken <br />Unnatural voices, my mind broken <br />By a sudden acquaintance with man's rage. <br /> <br />I have been Glyn Dwr set in the vast night, <br />Scanning the stars for the propitious omen, <br />A leader of men, yet cursed by the crazed women <br />Mourning their dead under the same stars. <br /> <br />I have been Goronwy, forced from my own land <br />To taste the bitterness of the salt ocean; <br />I have known exile and a wild passion <br />Of longing changing to a cold ache. <br /> <br />King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns, <br />Knowing the body's sweetness, the mind's treason; <br />Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen, <br />Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart's need.<br /><br />Ronald Stuart Thomas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/taliesin/
