My father's fare-welling eyes

When last I looked

on all that was precious to me then,

life before me ever widening, so exciting,

fighting so strongly those inner young man urges …

stay… or… go!

and thus my mind in quite a turmoil reasoned.

 *

‘I’ll go,’ I’d say,

‘No opportunities available here;

nothing really to make me stay.’

Then this thought, conqueror for a while,

eased the struggle, made me smile.

New country, opportunities to make new friends

‘Yes, it’s time to get away,’ I’d say.

 *

Wait a minute now, are you sure?

What of your family?

Winter’s coming and Dad’s not well …

This inner battle surged to and fro,

but I accepted at last the challenge to go.

 *

In some ways that part was easy

with me still wet behind the ears.

So with brother, two elder sisters

and father beside me, I took me leave,

whispering tearfully my choked goodbyes.

 *

The years have passed quickly as they do,

my last goodbye often accusing -

somewhere deep inside my head -

wishing I could relive again

the words I spoke back then:

 *

‘Only five years, Dad.

Just a few years, Dad, I’ll be away.

You know I must go, Dad?’

And his eyes taking their last look of me

so nearly persuaded me to stay.

 *

He knew, of course

our hold on life is so very tenuous,

no guarantees that our mortal plans

will necessarily reach their end …

and so it’s often been since last I looked

into my father’s fare-welling eyes.

 *

Dennis Crompton © 1995

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

Changing patterns - from England to New Zealand

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

 (first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)