Holiday Romance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

I was reminded of this poem as I got chatting to a couple of students in my favourite seaside resort of Brighton in East Sussex recently. Both were on holiday from Italy with a view to going to London for Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations this weekend. Having only met for the first time earlier in the day, they were plainly so enjoying each other’s company.

Could it be love, I wondered?

Whatever, holiday romances are meant to be enjoyed to the full.

Photo: Northumberland coast, taken by Judith Rhodes

Oh, to be young and so deliciously romantic again...!!! Ah, but you don’t have to be young, either, to enjoy romance and more.

HOLIDAY ROMANCE 

There's a shadow on the sand

that points across the sea

to a distant land - where once

you walked with me,

your hand in mine, our laughter

like spray in a summer breeze,

desire sparkling like diamonds

all around, our joy the key

to such rapturous harmony

of sea and shore as ever seen

by lovers who have surely passed

that way before

Even now, in a holiday crowd

I hear you laughing aloud

as I hoist our flag upon

a castle in the sand, dreaming

of that distant land - where once

we strayed and dared to dream,

each for the other, wage slaves

baying for the moon, knowing

our time together would be over,

too soon, and we saved all our tears

till after I had flown

Shadow on the sand placing us

2000 years on...

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2000.