Ubi Sunt

As a boy these docks, this harbour
was a playground for adventure
fascination for a mystery
with no interest in debenture
Freedom then to roam and play
in summers with no ending
gave birth to a long love affair
with Sussex there befriending

But that was a long time ago
and though docklands here remain
the yearning for adventure
I have long learned to refrain
Transitory was that time
yet still there's vestige here
with sun-bleached memories of my youth
rekindled by the year

The harbour may have changed yet I
am still that boy at heart
and though six decades since have passed
we're scarcely now apart
Yes transitory the passing
yet somehow just the same
as every time I pass I hear
the calling of my name

©Jemverse

Photo – Shoreham Harbour from the ‘Albert Dock’, Sussex, UK – Jempics

An ‘Ubi Sunt’ is a verse form in which the poem or its stanzas begin with the Latin words “…Ubi Sunt…” (Where are…) or their equivalent in another language, and which has as a principal theme the transitory nature of things.

This Jemverse ‘Ubi Sunt’ is dedicated to Frank Hubeny and ‘Another Fearless Year’ (aka Linda Kruschker) from whom the inspiration to write it came.