MEMORIES
I don't know if
16 Sept 2017
I don't know if nostalgia, this
Coffee that tastes just the same here, this
Gadget that we used to have there, this
Eating at Korean restaurants, this
Staring at seaweed and short grain rice, this
Listening for forgotten language, this
Deciphering of spied syllables, this
Looking for familiar faces, this
Wanting the whole wide world to know, this
Wistfulness and longing for a place, this
Unfilled hole within my heart, this
Grieving for a land I lost, is this
A bereavement, this?
this pain of parting, heavy hearted
this search to replicate the bliss
this never leaving, though we parted
this home, these friends, this land I miss
this trying never to forget you
this way of being a passer-through
this opening my heart, unguarded
this starting life afresh, anew
this seeing life from strange new angles
this gratitude for friendship's gifts
this, Seoul, is how I came to love you
and this is a bereavement, this
Memory of Mist in Somerset
23 Jan 2014
Despite blank space refusing thought, confusing mind
I drive on, wondering
I know this landscape; willow, rhyne and level
The passing places, trough and rise
My road laid out between two sides, and where I'm heading
But mist unfurling, curling, slipping through the cracks of time
Creating shadows in my mind
Makes gentle mockery of what I know
Thin blanket smoothes the past below
Shrouded but for isles of tree and hill
Above all, undimmed, the stars seem brighter still
And telegraph lines swing overhead to mark the way
Both there and back again
