23 January 2014

Poem

The Olden Days

Of the olden days
So little remains
Just  a line of stuff
Borne  by the highest tide
Tangled flotsam
To pick through
And sea kelp wreaths
Now rotting...
Yes that’s what’s left
Of the golden, olden days.  

In the olden days
We ran west of the village
Or cycled - laughing
Over Harrison Hill to quiet lanes
That reached for the River Hull
Through wide fields drained
By Saxon men
In the olden days.

Back then
We huddled nightly
In bedrooms
Devouring  Sergeant Pepper
Then  later Leonard Cohen
Black disc lines
Catching the electric light
Catching our breath
In those olden times.

“Cellophane flowers of yellow and green”
With  “heroes in the seaweed…
Leaning out for love”
Yes - that’s how it was...

In the olden days
Tomorrow was kept waiting
And summer stretched forever
Birds trilled in the hedgerows
And families stayed together
Bitter spectral  winds
Swept seawards from the Wolds
Once upon a time
In those distant days of old.

13 comments:

  1. Thank you, Mr Pudding. I have been feeling melancholy myself today. Not blue, but lonesome for something long past. But I still have tomorrow to begin anew. Today and all those yesterdays will be gone but not forgotten.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mama Thyme...I dedicate this poem to you because you niggled me into writing it after your response to my pictures. You threw in the bait and another fish came up.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5:15 am

    Nice rhythm on the second stanza. Shows the struggle over the hill and the freewheel at the other side. Was that intentional. I also like the atmosphere of the comparative still patience of 'wasted' hours of youth and carefree movement of endless days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your intelligent response disv2002. The second stanza "rhythm" was intuitive - not deliberate. I suppose my main purpose here was to simply examine the term "olden days". No dragons or knights in shining armour for these olden days are much closer than that - almost like yesterday -complete with popular music albums and electric light.

      Delete
  3. Yearning and melancholy are the two words that sprang to mind reading this lovely poem.....but don't forget, you ain't dead yet! and will be able to make many more days to remember in the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yearning and melancholy... yes but they need not exclude dreams of the future nor positive thinking about what is to come. Yet at 59/60 yrs old the truth of the matter is that the best has gone.

      Delete
  4. You do write well.
    This took me back to my early teens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know you are not a big poetry guy Adrian so it pleases me greatly that this was a poem with which you could connect and see yourself.

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. You are always so supportive. Thank you Helen.

      Delete
  6. How is the Anthology moving along YP? Are you organizing your poems into themes, possibly a chronicle of your life experiences. I am really looking forward to you publishing it in eBook format so I can download it to my iPad and read your poems to my students in class. Before you answer ~ I am not being facetious ~ OK?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the encouragement Carol. Facetious? You? Why I would never dream of such a thing! You know I ought to launch an e-book of my poems. I have it all half done and it wouldn't take long to put it out there. I might even write a new poem called "Ode to Carol". But what rhymes with Carol? Barrel, Darryl, apparel...Mmmm.

      Delete
  7. I went through a Leonard Cohen phase too! Funny how that poem has brought back a few memories!

    ReplyDelete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

Most Visits