In a gloomy mood I would never drink wine
Such wine would cause the wounded flames
of a heart
To climb even higher onto death’s ladder.
Just try easing your blue mood with wine
You’ll find that even more tears spatter
Upon the dull prospect of your tablecloth.
As for me, I only take cup in hand
So I can be convivial, or perhaps
In a mood to exchange confidences.
Never when alone do I sample
That intoxicating, mellow taste,
Only a true drinker knows
The sharing of a bottle.
I’ve seen leather bowls full of liquor
Making the rounds from hand to hand
They drank to the dead and to the living.
If not for wine, in this world
There would be no poetry, no proverbs,
Darkness and light would be further apart
It’s my belief—the potency of wine
Can erase the distance of time,
It helps you forget the pull of the dark side
Yet it alone immerses you to infinite depth
In the sky’s vast reaches
Like a boulder in free fall, resoundingly
You smite the inverted reflection of iron...