Compendium of Nostalgia

A BACKWARD GLANCE Alongside a Chiltern chalkstream I lay me down to dream, of country paths,stiles and steep slopes, those days,long ago,filled with hope; I dreamed of days of summer sun when my life had just begun, climbing trees,cricket on the green, the first time I made the school team; Football with coats and tennis ball, bonfire night fireworks in the Fall, carol singing through silent streets, paper chains and Christmas treats. Crystal clear,vision's backward gaze brought forth from nostalgia's haze. Many instant delights can never last All future certainty lies in the past, Often distant memories linger so Nostalgia's balance sways to and fro; Fleeting and ephmeral is the dream Yesterday's hero,a today's has-been, Rose-tinted glasses with short-sighted views Can distort all perspective,out of true; Twenty,twenty embellishes hind-sight But cannot guarantee,a future bright, Experience forgotten wastes away As superficiality has its day. The wheel of life endlessly turns again Grinding mistakes with perpetual pain. The imaginary musings of my mind, experience past & present lingers long, dusted off,re-opened,viewed from time to time, retrospective perspective changes all; Maturity's long-sightedness squints aghast, then savours the mellowness of memory; A tear,a smile washes nostalgia's face; Today will be yesterday,gathering dust, then filed,microfiched,all too soon forgotten 'til an event unlocks the museum again. Dull colours, long buried- this sepia day Our childhood memories- a forest of dreams see snows of yesteryear drifting in my mind. score and ten- looking back, one day at a time. TANKA Spring is cricket on the green Summer is picnics in the park Autumn is conkers from the crescent And in Winter slides on ice across the schoolyard Crystalline 57 Nostalgia The stream where pooh sticks once were raced now flows into memory's embrace THE WAKE Slowly, nostalgia trickles into torrents,to flood memory's canyon.