Sandcastles

 

While sifting through old photographs

Of childhood, black and white,

I came across a scene that stirred

My memory, overnight,

Three children by a sandcastle,

The finest ever made,

My sister, me and Hazel,

Made with bucket, and with spade,

With towers, crenellations

And surrounded by a moat,

The sand was dry, the tide was out

It stood there proud, remote.

 

Though sixty years have passed since then,

That camera shutter's sight

Caught just one random moment in

An afternoon's delight,

It froze that moment of our lives,

That castle on the sand,

And though the tide swept in that day

That castle, still it stands,

While we watched as the sands of time

Wrought havoc in our lives,

The moat we built could not protect

From husbands, or from wives.

 

The tide swept in and filled the moat,

The sides began to melt,

The water undermined the walls

And suddenly, they fell,

The love that we had built them with

Was washed right out to sea,

And left no sign of love behind,

For Hazel, Tess or me,

And then we learned the lesson

That our lives revolved around,

That nothing built will last unless

It's built on solid ground.

 

We spent our lives in dreaming

Building castles in the sand,

Believing that the tide would never turn

To wreck our plans,

We thought love was the answer

'Til discovering, too late,

That love swings on a pendulum,

The other end is hate,

And just as tides flow in and out

And level out the land,

The tides of life wreak havoc with

Our castles in the sand.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[B]

You brought tears to my eyes
I come from a family of three sisters and one brother
We build castles till this day and i am 31

I hope nothing washes away our solid grounds and our castles are not just built in sand

I couldn't ever bear departing from them
I have never loved anyone this much and never will

You are so beautiful with your words
Can't stop crying

[yashsickle]

Elegant while remaining simple along with a very soothing yet wistful flow. I'm not sure if it was the avant-garde side of me that would redo some lines, but that side of me can be very wrong sometimes. Either way I loved this piece, the veteran writer inside of you shines.

[Miss. Smith]

wow.......... for starters the actual sand castle in the picture is amazing but your poem even more so. I don't think I could say I have read a poem that has made me smile or feel...... something else, I am not exactly sure what. And the contrast between adulthood and childhood through sandcastles is amazing.
It's a strange thing what a photograph can do as well.....

[Ed Hart]

takes me back...way, way back...not entirely painless, but worth the trip...thanks

[CatOfOrion]

The fluency and rhyme scheme in this is really good, it just kept going and I never stuttered in my reading. The subject matter was beautiful as well, and I knew just what you were speaking of, pairing it with the image of sandcastles made a great addition to the depth.

[Shreyas Tripathy]

Unbelievably rhythmic !!! After the first few lines, my my eyes were no longer reading it, they were reciting it in unfathomed joy and utter disbelief of the fact that how a photograph, a memory could be turned into a lively poem like this. Sir the ink you use might be blue, black or green in color, but this poem has been etched in PURE GOLD in my memory forever ...

[Coyote Poetry]

A beautiful poem. Photo gave life to your words. I have the photos of my Grandparent. It was a different time with better ideas on living. The good description took me to a good place. Thank you for sharing the excellent poem.
Coyote

[poeticpiers]

How very true David. Old photographs record one single instant.frozen forever.But life does not work that way. Everything is subject to change.

[David Scott]

So many of us spend our entire lives wondering why our creations fail us. Paget nails it down hard here while holding the readers intrest with kind gentle thoughts. Provocative and profound without feeling abrasive or caustic. Nice way to teach a lesson. He must be a great teacher!

[Barbara Walker]

Wisdom, in meter and rhyme, my favorite kind!

[Art Sun]

so many castles out there...nice work David...