Sunset on the Sea

Sunset on the Sea - Oil on Canvas. Painting by: ©Prince Adeola Goloba (PG) 2025 

When the sun sinks crimson upon the sea, 
My heart remembers your fire in me.
I am a dreamer, yet never in vain,
I dream of the spark that still burns in my veins.

You lit up my soul with a radiant flame,
A light everlasting, beyond time’s name.
Before you vanish with your final kiss,

I wait by the tide, in sorrowful bliss.

The ocean keeps whispering echoes of you,
Its waves are the tears I no longer subdue.
Your shadow ascends where the skylarks fly,
Your song a lament that haunts the sky.

The dirge of your absence cuts deep, cuts wide,
It floods my spirit like an unbroken tide.
I grieve for the nights, for the moments we lost,
For love is a treasure, too precious the cost.

But solitude lingers a season, not all,
For love is immortal, it answers no fall.
Someday beyond where the starlight streams,
I’ll see you again in the land of dreams.

Our souls will be bound where forever resides,
Where memory lives and eternity hides.
No shadow, no silence, nor sorrow shall be,
Just endless love, like sunset on the sea.

My Reflection on "Sunset on the Sea" 

Sunset on the Sea was inspired by Céline Dion’s timeless ballad “My Heart Will Go On,” during a soul-stirring Sip & Paint with Vibes & Thrills session organized by my wonderful creative colleagues at Unchained Vibes Africa on Thursday September 25, 2025, in Magodo Estate GRA Phase 2. In that creative moment, the song awakened within me a rush of nostalgia, echoes of decades of heartbreak, the ache of love lost, and the tender beauty of memories that never fade.

The poem is not simply about grief, but about the endurance of love that is beyond separation. For me, the imagery of the sea and sunset reflects both the sorrow of farewell and the promise of eternal return. Like the sun that sets only to rise again, true love, once kindled, can never be extinguished by time, distance, or even death.

Every stanza carries the weight of longing. It is the fire that still burns, the tide that whispers memories, and the sky where the beloved soars. Yet, beneath the lamentation is also hope i. e a belief that love is immortal, and that one day, reunion awaits in the realm of dreams or eternity.

Sunset on the Sea is both elegy and celebration. It is a strong solemn lamentation for what was lost, and a sparkling hymn to what endures. This is my way of saying that though heartbreak may span decades, the memory of love, once felt deeply, becomes eternal light, like a sunset upon the sea, fading from view yet never truly gone.

©Prince Adeola Goloba 2025