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Oh winged creature hued in rainbow light,
Fluttering at the edge of failing sight,
Held aloft upon the soft scented air,
Stirring jasmine and lilac growing there.
I knew you once when I was strong and young,
Frolicking with maidens in the golden sun,
I knew you when my heart beat wild and free,
When blue skies and songbirds surrounded me.
Our springs and summers are not meant to last,
Now dim fading memories of a youthful past,
Night was always such a foreboding distant thing,
Never dreaming the sunset it would bring.
My windows curtained by an ocher gauze of time,
Separating each moment from a life sublime,
Gone the charm with which once I was blessed,
Flown away on the butterfly wings of happiness.
© 2010, Donald Harbour
Donald Harbour Poetry 
I do like the traditional tone of this poem; and I love that line.
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Oops! I love that LAST line.
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Have to agree with Tilly bud here. The older, more formal language, suits the sense of the poem like a glove,
Elizabeth
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And I agree wholeheartedly, despite the heated debate flying backwards and forwards on the Magma website http://magmapoetry.com/old-words/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MagmaPoetry+%28Magma+Poetry%29
This is a terrific image for the pursuit of happiness.
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Interesting, isn’t, how many of us are looking at happiness as the past?
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A classical response to the happiness of youth. I’d rather like to think happiness of a different sort comes after.
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A pleasure to read this..!!
places
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I like the formal structure of this, and you executed rhyme well in this. Both served as supports for the imagery within. Delicate and melancholy.
-Nicole
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