Ken's Poetry

Old Friends

Two ladies from a different age
how do we see you now that you are gone?
Friends through years we never knew
sharing old joys and sorrows
over tea and Welsh-cakes
in some cushioned kitchen in the clouds;

both with your generation’s skill
to listen to and value all who came
to rest awhile by your warm firesides
and leave them with a little of your smile,
the optimistic gentleness of age,
the knowledge that you cared and understood.

Your minds have travelled far beyond Pendine,
beyond old Swansea’s rocky tail
across the outstretched dome of sky
to lands and cultures far beyond your own,
your kitchen but a screen where to display
a world of experience .. in the old Welsh way.

We see you in the clouds, the window’s glint,
the light that sparkles through the trees,
together in some gentle .. gentle place,
with five years news at least, to say.
In murmuring wave, in soft summer rain
we hear your voices laughing once again.