A Young Man's Memories

 

Happy Memories

 

 

The old man reflects, seeing a younger self

Descend from a trooper on another continent.

Hong Kong, a colony then, rich in wonder, abounding in wealth,

Thinking reversed, for him all new, he settled in content.

 

He would not set his course to look for Europe’s ex-pat band

When China’s flowing, throbbing pulse held heart and life in thrall,

Captured his young and questing mind

With the new, yet age-old culture of it all.

 

The colours, scents and clamour, villages and fields,

He could find within an arm’s length of his bed.

Islands, sea-bays, fishing junks and sampans, each one yields

Photographs on paper – yes – but more important, in his head.

 

Pictures never-to-be forgotten, as in his days of age

He recalls with joy the paddy fields, temple bells and groves,

Chinese theatre’s noises on a shaky bamboo stage

Or growing bamboo’s whispering sigh from foliage high above;

 

Street markets, vendors, noodle stalls, coffin shops and chests,

Funerals – dressed in white descending outside bamboo stair,

Offerings and Joss sticks, Haka coolies taking rests

As workers hustle onward and refugees despair.

 

He remembers too the dishes he could only just afford;

Wondrous mixtures, blasting spices, sliding noodles, long-grain rice

Beetles, birds nest, sharks fin, snake, yes all of them explored,

Enjoyed and liked and eaten with chopsticks, in a trice.

 

St Andrew’s Church in Kowloon, an oasis, place of peace

Where the young man would retire to think – remembering once again

That this was not his homeland, this experience would cease

With the boarding of a troopship with a thousand other men.

 

He would sail home via Malaya, Colombo, Durban, then

around the Cape of Africa, at last, Gibraltar gone,

The experience was over, it will never come again

But the memory, Ahh! The memory. The memory - - - lingers on !

 

John L. Berry,   October 2008

 

It is 1955 and a 21 year old is called up for National Service in the British Army. He had been married for 3 months and was sent to Hong Kong, newly trained as a Royal Engineer. A seeming disaster turned into a wonderful experience as he decided to stop moaning, get on with it and see what benefits could he could wrest from the opportunity. There were many, and the parting was soon over, viewed from a lifetime perspective. He sailed out on the trooper Asturias via the Mediterranean and Suez and, due to the Suez War of 1956, returned on the Nevasa via the Cape of Good Hope. His life has never been the same. A boy left but a man came home. The experience became the start of a lifetime of travel and now, at the wrong end of that life, he looks back with a mixture of happiness at his gains and sadness at the opportunities missed. The white ship in the Avatar is the 'Nevasa' on which he returned just in time to photograph the beautiful 'United States' leaving Southampton.  They say “Never look back”. Why not? He does with pleasure. 

Reviews

[R J Askew]

Fascinating. Having just read the very different Harpstrings of Dee I now read this, which is bursting with human life at its most active, as there can be few places of such bustle as HK. Yet the two poems have at least two things in common, great observation and a sustained flow of words and mood. I also enjoyed your comments on looking back and agree that if the memory is so profoundly positive as this one is, why not? To recall such memories seems life enriching and evidence of a life well lived in that you drew great positives from what started out as a setback.

[Gary H]

Really enjoyed the way the writing takes the reader away to another continent to look at pictures through the eyes of another. Yet for all the amazing sights, there is a sadness of war, a search that never quite reveals itself. I wonder if that is the reason he now looks back?
I'm very appreciative of the footnote that explains the poem in more depth.
Just a point that might be of use. Having finished the poetry section of the OU course I found recommended to not to start all lines with a capital letter - unless starting a new sentence. As this particular piece has individual sections in sentences, I think it would be useful to look at this.

[Lily1111]

"Photographs on paper � yes � but more important, in his head."

I love this line and its simple truth. I understand so well what you are saying. This poem is so timely for me having just returned home from a magical adventure in Kenya. While I was there I too tried to absorb every color, sound, fragrance, touch, and experience so that it would imprint in my mind and memories forever.

Your remarkable descriptions of all of the above of your journey and experience are so vivid that once again I feel as if I have mentally visited Hong Kong in 1955. You really do have a wonderful facility for inviting us along on your trips down memory lane. Really well written John.

[chloe cruz]

This was astonishing. I love your discriptions... and how you explained at the end what was occuring. And throught the whole poem! Thanks for sharing! *smiles*

[Kate]

Great piece. The story here is so true. Experiences such as the army really change a person. We need to continue to learn from the past and look to the future. We cannot move on without looking back at our lives.