As The Ruin Falls - by C S Lewis

- the way of precious pain -

AS THE RUIN FALLS

- by C S Lewis.

All this is flashy rhetoric about
loving you.
I never had a selfless thought
since I was born.

I am mercenary and self-seeking
through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely
to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure,
are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside
my proper skin:

I talk of love --a scholar's parrot
may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end
where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me
(but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything
you are was making

my heart into a bridge by which I
might get back
from exile, and grow man. And now
the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls.
The pains
you give me are more precious than
all other gains

- Clive Staples Lewis.