One of my most prized possessions, a small out-of-print book I came across in the 80s.

It has Duane Michals' photographic interpretations of the poems of Constantine Cavafy.

Michals' visual eroticism paired with Cavafy's poems of nostalgic longing and unrequited love while The Smiths played continually on my record player is what encompassed most,

if not all, of the angst that was my twenties.

 --Duane Michals

Understanding

My younger days, my sensual life ---

how clearly I see their meaning now.

What needless, futile regret....

But I didn't see the meaning of it then.

In the loose living of my early years

the impulses of my poetry were shaped,

the boundaries of my art were plotted.

That's why the regretting was so fickle.

Any my resolutions to hold back, to change,

lasted two weeks at the most.

--Constantine Cavafy