Hiraeth

 

Hiraeth: Wales or Welsh: deep longing for something, especially one's home

Inspired by songs of Lucky Ali – and Youtube comments of listeners longing for the 90s of our childhood days, way simpler and more human than anything ever will be

 

Perhaps because I am here removed

Into these distant lands

I feel, I can always board a ship and sail

Far from these golden sands

 

A false consolation, I give myself

And to my dreamer heart

Which thinks that it can return always

Back to the very start

 

Alas, there is also the wheel of time that moves

Besides the seas that shift

The past is past, in a bottle locked

Now far away adrift

 

It is only when I hear of hearts

Still back at home, in song –

Longing for our cherished past

That I know something is wrong

 

If those at port, too long and pine,

For a harbour safe and sound

There is no place left to steer this ship,

Home’s no longer to be found

 

Then throw the compass, tear the maps

Just keep the bottles old,

Emptied of rum, now long time back

Just whiffs of dried-up gold

 

That lingering smell that cannot be washed

That aftertaste in the smell

Is all that’s left in our ship, this sea

The waves, the tides, the swell

 

In my deepest sighs, is it the winds I hear?

It’s time to write now newer tales

With no more anchors left to drop

Pull the halyards, hoist the sails….

 

21^st Feb’ 2025