What Might Have Been

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Roseberry Topping - April 1957

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

When we were young and life was all adventure
We briefly touched in those few hours of pleasure
Those moments on the hills and in the dales
Memories of an idyll that I treasure.

Out tramping over moor and through the heather
The sun embracing us in warmth and love
The curlew’s cry rebounding all around us
That time was surely sent from heaven above

Your glance in my direction met my heart strings
But little more at that time done or said
I felt those tender eyes were offering passion
And yet I did not follow where they led.

If that brave glance I had not then mistaken
Who knows what different path I’d tread?
We could have found each other for a lifetime
Chance intervened and severed us instead.

I’m reminded of that other road not taken
My future at a loss to predicate
Such times as this I oft have missed their meaning
A turning point on which has hinged my fate

Yet often since I’ve wondered in my dreaming
What happened to that girl whose warmth I felt
What life and love had brought to her remoteness
What sort of hand her fortune cards had dealt.

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6 thoughts on “What Might Have Been”

  1. Roland, you lit me up like a Christmas tree, I felt the lure of our native lands, the memory of my own never walked paths and a wanting to know more. A smile and warm feeling are the rewards for reading this.

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  2. A nice poem Roland. I suppose there is always a thought of something that might have been in our lives and you capture this well in your poem.

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  3. Poignant! What blessings life has brought too as well as the what ifs you capture so well.

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