IN SEARCH OF SELF

 By Richard Banks

One day I ventured back to where

I lived a life so free of care

 

To my first house in Bedford town

I thought the past could there be found

 

Might I remember and reclaim

the hope and joy of one who came

 

to lose all faith in God and man

so try I must and if I can

 

refind the me who once I liked

well meaning, upright, good and bright.

 

The house was smaller than I thought

its former merit all but nought

 

old, neglected, paintwork peeling

through window eyes as if appealing

 

to make it good as it once was

to save it now before all’s lost

 

What me? I said, who like yourself

is cut-adrift from his true self

 

Could we together push back the years

and recreate a time so dear.

 

Restore yourself, replenish me

saved united we will be

 

So thus I brought that empty wreck

and rescued it, my old homestead.

 

But true to say it rescued me

and happy now I am to be

Copyright Richard Banks