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.
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.
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.
ReplyDeleteMama 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.
DeleteNice 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.
ReplyDeleteThank 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.
DeleteYearning 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.
ReplyDeleteYearning 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.
DeleteYou do write well.
ReplyDeleteThis took me back to my early teens.
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.
DeleteLoved it !!
ReplyDeleteYou are always so supportive. Thank you Helen.
DeleteHow 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?
ReplyDeleteThank 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.
DeleteI went through a Leonard Cohen phase too! Funny how that poem has brought back a few memories!
ReplyDelete