This poem is an attempt to describe how I felt leaving England in 1954 and arriving to live in New Zealand...
*
Sometimes of late brought to the surface of my mind
by strange, yet wonderful promptings from within
reflections from the continuum of my life, as now
I contemplate, how far away from home I've come.
*
I am a boy, just seven years since born
absorbing daily rich variations that surround
the warp and weft, parts of the tapestry shaping me.
*
Ah, there was so much I enjoyed, back then
Of country sounds and smells, and scenes,
wending and widening my way through awkward, adolescent life…
yet to discover the bitter-sweet potential,
used or dormant within my self-limiting frame.
*
As young man now, I stand at dusk and watch from stern of ship
fleeting sights of home, as cold, we sail on down the Clyde.
Not till Land's End appears above the churning wake,
emotions mixed, tears-welling, do I wonder at my chosen fate.
*
Time now as I journey to gaze upon the vastness of the sea,
feel the mighty ocean's surge beneath my wandering feet.
At night my eyes discern the changing patterns of the stars,
I leave one life to start another 'neath warmer southern skies.
*
One night we anchor, welcomed by myriads of twinkling lights
round Wellington's Harbour, fairyland place of hope.
Then down to Wigram my new life to begin,
where hands of many strangers ease my settling in.
*
Forty more years on, Kiwi citizen, proud and with no real regrets,
thankful to those whose friendship I have won.
New Zealand, my home, rich flavour of my life,
bestowing peace and purpose now I know is mine.
*
Dennis Crompton © 2013
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(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)
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