Category Archives: Holidays

Sweet paradise of childhood

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St Ouen Sand
Sweet paradise of childhood,
Oh, truly happy land,
Where friends in sea and sunshine
Across the golden sand
Of childhood’s endless summers
Go running hand in hand.

Jersey 1980

Mediterranean

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Come with me to the brow of the hill,
The wind in the pines is singing still
And the sun is high in the sky.
From the top we’ll get a glimpse of the sea,
Of the misty islands of Arcady
And the distant mountains high.

There lies the ocean the Argonauts crossed,
Where Ulysses and his ship were tossed
For ten full winters long,
Turned into swine by the witch Circe,
Lulled by the fruit of the lotus tree
And the winged sirens’ song.

Over the sea on the Southern side
Are the lands of Africa, dark and wide,
And the fountains of the Nile.
There on its shores in the burning sun,
To the myriad insects metallic hum,
Basks the watchful crocodile.

Away to the West, beyond the trees,
Stand the mighty Pillars of Hercules
Where the wild Atlantic flows.
And on this side, from their Carthage home
Came Hannibal’s elephants bound for Rome
Through the shining Alpine snows.

So come with me to the brow of the hill,
The wind in the pines is singing still
And the sun is high in the sky.
From the top we’ll get a glimpse of the sea,
Of the misty islands of Arcady
And the distant mountains high.

(Camping in Frejus 1980)

Down the Gullies

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The silver sandbanks beckon me
Towards the ebbing sea,
So down I go with shrimping net
And sandwiches for tea.

My favourite gullies stretch away
Towards a distant land
Where sea meets sky beyond the rocks
And bars of untrod sand.

This is the shore where Neptune reigns,
Where mermaids swim and play,
Where tides stand still before they turn
To rise, then flow away.

Among the rocks a thousand pools
Lie cool and green and deep,
With seaweed forests still and dark
All seemingly asleep.

But in their depths the blennies dart
And green crabs hide and dig,
The hermits scuttle out of sight,
Their shells a shade too big.

Here all is calm and I’m alone,
The sun moves on his way
Across the cloudless summer sky
Towards the end of day.

The tide has turned, it’s time to go
Back to the distant shore;
My jam jar’s full of shrimps and crabs,
Tomorrow there’ll be more.

For Helier, Lucy and Bessie – August 1979