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The One

Long ago when youth possessed me,
Eighteen winters had not distressed me,
Yet within my restless breast lay hunger unexplored;
For I saw in others’ glances
Tender vows and soft romances
While I wandered starless chances, seeking one to be adored;
Swearing fate would yet afford
One love mine — and nothing more.

There came a fragile vision,
Sweet illusion, soft derision
Innocence in pale collision, whispered at my door.
I believed the dream had found me,
Thought her gentle gaze had crowned me
Till the silence gathered round me, colder than before;
And the flame that once had soared
Fell to ash — and nothing more.

Then another, fierce and tender,
Bound my trembling heart in splendor;
Promised always to surrender neither less nor more.
Years we walked in tethered longing,
Certain fate could do no wronging
Till that tether, once so strong,
Snapped — and cast me from the door;
Leaving me upon the floor
Empty, aching — nothing more.

So it went — a mournful pattern,
Love would bloom and love would shatter;
Every vow grew thin and tattered as it tore.
Queens of fleeting, fragile kingdoms
Ruled my heart in broken rhythms;
Each departure built within me
Storms I could not ignore
And still I searched for more.

They live on... They live on...
Seven years and ten had claimed me,
Grief had hollowed and unframed me;
Thirty winters thus had named me
Man undone by lore.
“I shall love no other",
As the dying candles fluttered,
While my weary spirit muttered,
“Close the heart and bar the door.”
Thus I swore — Forevermore.

Yet in guarded desolation
Came a distant conversation;
Soft and strange infatuation
From a farther shore.
Though I vowed my heart was hardened,
Still it stirred, though faintly pardoned
But another’s claim had burdened
What I sought and could not store;
So again I stood unsure
Searching more.

Thus I turned my steps from homeland,
Crossed the waters, crossed the foam-land,
Seeking where the sun burned gold upon another shore.
In that distant, humid heaven
Hope was whispered, faint but driven
Yet her roots were deeply riven,
Bound to lands she would not forgo;
So I blessed her from below
And pressed on evermore.

Nearer now I felt my ending,
Not of life — but of my mending;
Every shattered piece contending
With what came before.
Till at last, as dawn was breaking,
Past all grief and past all aching,
Came a love that was not faking,
Steady as the ocean’s roar.

No tempest tore her from me,
No deceit could rise above me;
She beheld the wounds that of me
Others would abhor.
From the tropic winds she found me,
With a quiet vow she bound me —
And the restless dark around me
Raged and whispered — then no more.

Years have passed and still she lingers,
Warmth within these scarred old fingers;
Where once sorrow coiled like singers
Crying at death’s door
Now a hearth burns ever steady,
Now a heart stands strong and ready;
No more hunted, no more unready,
No more cast upon the floor

For the one I sought before
Stands beside me — evermore.


This song is based on original poetry written by Adam McKim and adapted into song lyrics for this channel, “Adam McKim | Poetry in Song.” All lyrics, adaptations, and creative works published on this channel are the intellectual property of Adam McKim and are protected under copyright law.