My darling,

I have seen a thousand sunsets, on land where it forests and mountains with honey coloured light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multicoloured nest of cloud, slipping in and out of the vastocean.

I have seen a thousand moons: harvest moons like gold coins, winter moons as white as ice chips, new moons like baby swans' feathers.

I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, coloured like shot slik or blue as a kingfisher or transprent as glass or black and crumpled with foam, moving ponderously and murderously.

I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, black and wailing like a lost child.

I have seen Whales, black as tar,cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versailles of fountain with their breath.

I have lain in warm as milk, soft as silk, while aroud me a host of dolphins.

I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things...

But––

All this i did without you. This was my loss.

All this i want to do with you.This will be my gain.

All this i would gladly have forgone for the sake of one minute of your company.

                    for your laugh,

                      your voice,

                      your eyes,

                          hair,

                          lips,

                        body,

and...

and above all for your sweet,

even surprising mind which is an enchanting quarry in which it  is my privilege to delve.

                                          Gerald Durell