The sun’s open arms Embrace the emerging day Seeking lost sunbeams
Clutching at ripe fruit Ever hoping to regain Spent and mislaid strength
Hopeless task to set Once spent never recovered Now feeding our homes
Caught by our panels Sustained by the human race Lost to Mother Earth
The pen & wash sketches are by WHB (aka Roland). In order they are of …
Top: South Bishop Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire, Wales (1993); Centre: An English Dawn . . . (1991) Bottom: Lamlash and Holy Isle, Isle of Arran, Firth of Clyde, Scotland … (2001)
As the seductive sun appears Dispensing its joy in generous rays The air I breathe is warm yet fresh And the world awakes from its malaise.
Content to soak up all the warmth, The earth, the grass, the trees are still, Suffused with morning’s cooling calm Sharing a taste of earth’s goodwill.
The elfin stream is placid too Reflecting back the sunlight’s heat Tending the water’s life below Coaxing us all the sun to greet.
Oh, make the most of this fair day Before it melts and drifts away.
I composed this sonnet inspired by an early morning scene in The New Forest, Southern England, which is also the subject of my pen and wash sketch above.
‘Clytie’ Sculpted by G.F.Watts … Pen & Ink sketch: WHB
In the verses below, I attempt to express Clytie’s plight when she finds her love for the Son God, Helios, rejected, and she is committed to watch his daily flight across the heavens in his winged chariot . Eventually she is transformed into a sunflower or heliotrope , condemned for ever to follow the sun’s movements across the sky.
C L Y T I E
As dusk takes over from the day I stand on Helios’ shore and weep. Light for my soul, Lust for my life; These no more can I strive to keep.
Yet there is hope because the night Is followed by expectant day. The sun will rise With hope intact, And I’ll revive my destined way.
The languid sun will lift at dawn Over the shimmering tranquil sea. It is my dreams, My Holy Grail, And promises new hopes to me.
The sun renews its daily task. As Clytie, I still strive to meld Lovers’ aubade, Their serenade. With this till dusk my life is held.
Time’s chariot, its path I trace; Helios arcs across the sky. Till evening ends In blood red gore, And once again I die.
But then again the cycle breaks When dawn extends to dusk its kiss. It’s carmine clinch, Crimson caress, Herald again life’s feud with bliss.
Pen & Ink Drawing of George \frederick Watts’ sculptured bust of CLYTIE . . . by W.H.B.
In the verses below, I attempt to express Clytie’s plight when she finds her love for the Son God, Helios, rejected, and she is committed to watch his daily flight across the heavens in his winged chariot . Eventually she is transformed into a sunflower or heliotrope , condemned for ever to follow the sun’s movements across the sky.
CLYTIE
As dusk takes over from the day I stand on Helios’ shore and weep. Light for my soul, Lust for my life; These no more can I strive to keep.
Yet there is hope because the night Is followed by expectant day. The sun will rise With hope intact, And I’ll revive my destined way.
The languid sun will lift at dawn Over the shimmering tranquil sea. It is my dreams, My Holy Grail, And promises new hopes to me.
The sun renews its daily task. As Clytie, I still strive to meld Lovers’ aubade, Their serenade. With this till dusk my life is held.
Time’s chariot, its path I trace; Helios arcs across the sky. Till evening ends In blood red gore, And once again I die.
But then again the cycle breaks When dawn extends to dusk its kiss. It’s carmine clinch, Crimson caress, Herald again life’s feud with bliss.
Clytie is a figure from Ancient Greek mythology. She was a water nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys in Greek mythology. Clytia loved Helios in vain.[ My Poem was Previously published – Sep., 2016 ]
‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.‘ King James Bible . . . Matthew 6:34. ‘Sermon on the Mount’
Yes … Tomorrow is another day One more locked-down day to bear While for me the world outside attempts to hide from view Yet I know that Somewhere The sun shines, while elsewhere snow’s warmth blankets the tumbling hills The rain is working its vernal wonders in the forest and the world’s waves beat upon its brackish shores
My life’s sideshow cowers in lockdown’s shade The life I once learnt to live fades And a new one awaits Granted by science and by human endeavour A new path to wend – to explore A road less travelled which I must learn to love The old well-tbeaten ways no longer lead to certainty only to danger and distress And so amidst a tangled understanding of right and wrong The future lives on in uncertainty’s haze
Roland's Ragbag 