Lessons From Tristan and Isolde
by Michael Doyle

Love has been the subject of great mystery
Throughout all of mankind's fabled history
Sometimes life's lessons have become legendary
From Shakespeare to the Athenian tragedy

It's true what a thing it is, this fine mess
That mortals confess as destructive in its excess
We are all born to die, there is no exception
Of this we can be certain in our expectation

There are times when things are best left behind
Regardless of the push and pull that tugs in our minds
It is best to learn to always live by what is true
Be it of any age even as the most courtly of lovers do

The knightly code of conduct binds in its chivalry
Those things we must do to be sung of in minstrelsy
The ideal of honor is the kept word's solid reputation
Of courage and with justice in its interpretation

Courtly love lived in an age of truest romance
That was often arranged as a matter of rare finance
Yet, a lover admire the coveted lady from afar
Singing of her attested love under shining moon and star

Until loving notes would be exchanged in their ideal
With signaled colors state their intentions to reveal
Tristan and Isolde was such a tale from old Cornwall
There in the pursuit of the relics leading to Camelot's fall

Dedicated as it was to a purer and higher sense of love
That set its heart in adventures whisper from above
A knight was in love with his beautiful white flower
Cherished as she was in every minute of every hour

While victory might yet to be won and it should be had
Bittersweet unto his death, the poisoned tip pierced sad
Where true love passes Tristan as a child of sadness
Whose birth and childhood was the substance of madness

Like every other true knight's life lived in service
He gave his best to King Mark, in honor of his mistress
And yet it is that the days of ennobled knightly lore
That the giving of all is what a knight lived and died for

(c) March 30, 2022  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved