"It was three years yesterday when I first met Sheila, the love of my life, in Gascoignes, Main Street, Haworth on Wednesday the 15th, December,2010. While that meeting alone was insufficient to tell either of us that 'we'd met the one,'
it nevertheless made us both feel uneasy when we parted, unsure of whether we would ever see each other again.
Upon arriving home,everything inside me seemed to scream out that I had foolishly walked away from the love of my life and would come to bitterly regret it. Whenever my emotions become unsettled, I often write. I sat down and wrote a poem about having lost the love of my life through a failure not to commit there and then when love looks you in the face. The poem is dedicated to Sheila, 'The greatest love of my life.'
‘The Greatest’ by William Forde.
The greatest words I never heard were whispered down the wind,
On one dark sombre Wednesday night my life came to an end.
‘Come back’ you whispered silently as I did walk away,
Half- broken, shattered, disillusioned; melted heart at play.
The greatest thrill I never knew was just around the bend.
Faint- hearted lover look at me, I’ll be more than thy friend.
Why did you not profess your love, you can’t have understood,
Why did you cruelly smash my dreams when all I thought was good?
The greatest love of all my life forever shall be thee.
The biggest fool that ever lived thou knowest to be me.
The softest touch I never felt came from your warm embrace,
You kissed my image tenderly, you warmed my glassy face.
Your lips brushed mine so sweetly, though I never felt a thing
Your tears of loss ran down my cheeks and rested there within.
Trapped forever ‘neath the glass which captured this wry smile,
Unknown to me you swore your love and sighed alone awhile.
Had you but spoken sooner, it would have been okay,
The love that I expressed to you would never fade away.
Had you believed the best in me, if only you had said,
Together we would be right now, forevermore instead.
Alone, we live our destiny, until the day we die,
We’ll stay apart, no more to kiss beneath the lover’s sky.
Until the green sod binds us close, once more beneath the ground
We’ll kiss; we’ll touch, and say so much, no more shall we need sound.
William Forde: December 16th, 2013.