Where are the Days of Splendor?

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Laura Bloomsbury hosts the d’Verse Poets Pub with a challenge to write Ubi Sunt (where are they?) a term taken from the longer Latin phrase Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt (where are those who were before us)?

This is my first attempt to write Ubi Sunt, and I thank Laura for such a wonderful challenge!

I have taken the liberty to write this as if it is a different season than the one we are in

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WHERE ARE THE DAYS OF SPLENDOR?

Where are the days of splendor?
Overhead it is stripped of color
no distinguishing cloud from sky
and a wind from the north
with teeth of icicles is pushing through.
Tree’s lofty palette is washed clean
and the branches are twisted and longing
but their arms will hold a crystalline blanket
and their birds will flee.
The world lies sleeping and the thin warmth
of the sun’s light cannot bring it back.
Where is the beauty of green and gold?
Where is the dappled grass spread with
covers of red and white and wine and cheese?
Where are the deer and rabbit and turkey?
Where are flowers, heavy with blooms,
feeding the bees and butterflies?
My frozen heart laments, Oh, where are the days of splendor?

Copyright 2025 Lisa Paul

MTB: Ubi Sunt and that Where, Oh Where?
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Published by lisaapaul

I’m a paralegal, a widow, mother and grandmother.

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11 thoughts on “Where are the Days of Splendor?”

  6. I enjoyed how you chose to write about a season on the way, not quite here in Central Oregon. Hoping it holds off until November, a slim possibility. Beautifully composed, Lisa.

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