LONG since I taught my spirit to obey <br />The Sage's great commandment - to forget <br />And so to lose life's bitterness and fret <br />And taste its sweetness; and I went my way <br />Eluding joy and sorrow, grave and gay, <br />And lived exempt, my being always set <br />Upon the striking hour, without regret, <br />Secure, refreshed, remote from yesterday. <br />But oh my friend, my love, my very dear, <br />My practised wisdom is a curse to me; <br />I do forget, and when you are not near <br />It is, by Heaven, as if you ceased to be; <br />And I would buy with agony and fear <br />One hour, one little hour of memory.<br /><br />Alice Duer Miller<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-price-to-peace/
