They were written by someone I once was

From Laurie Lee: Selected Poems by Laurie Lee.  A recasting of Heraclitus' "You can never step in the same river twice" into something like, you are never the same man you were.

From the preface.

Most of these verses were originally published in three separate volumes - spanning perhaps a decade or so - and for this selection I have cut them down by about half.
 
They were written by someone I once was and who is so distant to me now that I scarcely recognise him anymore. They speak for a time and a feeling which of course has gone from me, but for which I still have close affection and kinship.