Something I have longed for
since nineteen seventy-seven
arrived on Christmas morning
with a little slice of heaven
My own Millennium Falcon
and an AT-AT for good measure
which after careful building
I can keep and always treasure
A present from my children
(there were tears and that's the truth)
some moments of emotion
to rekindle here my youth
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
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.
In the woods I saw a curtain
hanging from a tree
Really quite significant
It said a lot to me
It spoke of changing seasons
standing side by side
when youth makes ways for wisdom
and Summer turns to hide
The red was of the Autumn
standing next to green
An older man, the next in line
as it has always been
And I smiled at that analogy
for it was so full of truth
The wisdom of the cooler months
and the warmer ones of youth
...all about me and my life in words. I write most days, carrying an ideas book around in which I capture a word snapshot of life around me. So there's a lot here about Sussex and the sea and anything else I see that inspires.
The pictures are mine too. Some taken to match a poem; some poems written to match a pic; others chosen because they work well with words written.
Jemverse is life in words. Hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing...