I STROLL through mutable Alexandra Park

Where leaves chase each other like children at play

Reminding me it is September with the air

Possessing just a hint of autumn.

Then the quaint red phone box reaches my gaze

And, of course, the splendid pier.

Penarth beach after a September shower

With a few people here at this early hour

Only a jogger and the usual dogs and their owners.

I walk alone on the pebbled beach

And there’s a dazzling boulevard of silver

In the Channel where a sailing boat

Floats over the choppy water, the islands

Of Flat Holm and Steep Holm clearly visible now

And it’s a perfect time to realise

That so much beauty lies before my eyes.

Waves crash without much conviction

Against the shore and sparkling pier

Where patient fishermen cast their rods.

An old-timer stares out to sea

Perhaps recalling chapters from his life.

Sisley would love to paint the scene today

Which he did so many decades before

As a gull’s shadow drifts across the shore.

Guy Fletcher

Pantmawr

Cardiff