(The challenge was to write a poem that incorporates the sonnet convention of the “volta” or “turn”, by which is meant a change of direction about two-thirds of the way through – after line eight in a 14-line poem)
The Heraclitan river flows
Through every life and every age
What happened once has gone away
Stored in memories remembered
Well or ill, or maybe confined
To myths retold to later folk
And then believed as certain truth,
Confusing less enquiring minds.
A very rich man, just because he could,
Bought Rome’s top job, but it did him no good.
And now we have seen someone I won’t name
Do what you might think is almost the same.
May I quote Mark Twain? Historical time
Does not repeat, although it tends to rhyme.
© John Welford
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