I was digging through some of my older poems this afternoon and I found this one which was written when I was on leave in 1987. I had just finished officer training at Sandhurst and was waiting to join my unit in Bünde Germany.
I went back to Bünde last time I was in Germany and was surprised to see that the base, I used to live on, no longer existed. I guess in its own way it too lives on as a memory in my mind, but perhaps not as fondly as the one described in the poem.
Memories
The warm sun shines gently upon my back.
Dozing peacefully on the stony porch,
I listen to the sound of the waves
breaking on the shore.
An ant works its way across the paving,
occasionally pausing to sniff the air.
before moving onwards,
working a crazy path in front of me.
The warmth and the peaceful noises
bring thoughts of love and joy
to my lazy mind.
I close my eyes and remember.
John Carré Buchanan
May 1987
