I'M STARING at a postcard from 1902

Showing the North Beach on a hot summer's day

Women in stifling Victorian dresses

Walk or sit on the shore as a small boat

Drifts in the placid early 20th century Channel.

Passengers are waiting for the ferry

On that sunny day now deep in the past

A reminder that time passes so fast

And that every day should be cherished.

The cliffs have been somewhat eroded

And this morning the tide is full

With just a solitary soul on the Esplanade

Summer crowds of long ago just ghosts

As a winter wave leaps lethargically

Half-way up a very different wall

Very few clouds in the blue sky at all.

Over a century ago Sisley came here to paint

In a simpler world where a day on the beach

Brought such pleasure to so many.

But it's glorious here on this winter's day

I'm at peace with myself admiring the view

Of the azure sea from the pier

Just like people so many years before

Whom I observe wandering on the shore.

Guy Fletcher

Pantmawr

Cardiff