A Sonnet on Reunion

 Listen to: A Sonnet On Reunion

This free verse poem in sonnet form was written following my reunion with three of the seven other cadets with whom I first went to sea in 1975.

I left life's fuss outside, like muddied shoes,
And stoked the embers of my memory
To spark with laughter at our meeting,
How bittersweet it was to greet old friends.

Barely familiar were those life-lived faces,
And yet, by smile or turn of phrase or look,
I swiftly sped through fifty fleeting years,
To find those men the decent friends they were.

We lived hard lives and lived so brightly then,
Yet though I've lived more full and vibrant since,
Those friends gave meaning to my restless youth,
Far more than anyone or place I’d known.

We went to sea as boys and they remain
As men, the friends I knew and know once more.

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