Delivered to me on February 20th, 1997 by my English teacher Geza Polony. This poem still strikes me to the core. It's been all these years and I still haven't reached it's depth. Today it makes me think of the Sun - a beauty that feeds us energy and gives us life; yet we can't gaze at it without going blind and we can't go near it without melting in it's heat. Every coin has two sides.

The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower by Dylan Thomas

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.