Well, Dylan, it’s all very well to talk about raging against the dying of the light.

Rage away if you like.  Drink away if you must but we know

Light must die.

My experience is that raging

makes the light flicker, flare up or gutter down.

You were urging your father to resist, they say.

Or was it your own panic, your own horror at the dimming light.

“Me?  Can it really be for me too?”, was your dark question.

Passion, drink, the wick of your life aflame, blazing in wonderful, careless ways.

We all must burn somehow

and your choice was to flare up, to set the mountain alight

with bracken crackling and illuminating the quiet narrow little town.

But some of us must burn steady and illuminate

our corner and those who come within our circle, beneath our beam of light.

no raging or flaming up here.

I prefer to glow.