I spent years in different places, painting walls and hanging blinds. I got to know many faces, landscapes, tastes and sounds, lacing fragile ties and pulling them apart again before I could acclimatise to nuances of sun and rain. I longed for a little place where I could set down roots, pulling it on each day […]
Category: Poems about Norfolk
Pub Crawl
Norwich once had a pub for every day of the year. Old Norwich boys supped at the Adam and Eve, and in the Angel Gardens. Taverns tracked artisans, life and livelihood through The Beehive and The Brickmakers, Dyers, Plasterers and Bakers Arms, wielding Trowel and Hammer or a fishing rod for the Compleat Angler, and […]
North Norfolk Mammoth (reprise)
Amongst mounds of stones and sand at the foot Of crumbling cliffs, where Norfolk juts its chin, Stubborn and defiant as King Canute Watching the waves roll out and crash back in On flat landscape from Yarmouth to King’s Lynn, A rich treasury of ancient fossils, Cached by glaciers in the primeval Landscape almost a […]
At the Gatehouse
My response to A Dash of Sunny Prompt Nights On Popular Demand – Lets gather around for some ghost stories – [8] Sanaa has asked us to gather around for some ghost stories, either a poem or a fiction piece, and for inspiration gave us the poems: ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ by John Keats, ‘Mad […]
Late Afternoon on a Norfolk Wherry
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meter-Made Mood–dVerse Meeting the Bar Victoria has challenged us to write a poem that illustrates how meter contributes to the mood of a poem. His face is traced and creased by Norfolk gales, His skin tanned Van Dyke brown as wherry sails, The wherryman sits on the tiller […]
Overcast on the Norfolk Coast
Ominous under a rain-speckled sky, Lilac-coloured flowers of salsify Bloom among the grasses In moody bird-haunted marshes, Where oystercatchers pipe on the tideline. In the morning drizzle, on a ghostly coast, Wind jangles masts and rigging on boats, Whistles in sea-bleached branches and reeds, And chattering sedge warblers root in the weeds. On a beach […]
Darkness and Light – a san san
I saw Jane Dougherty’s NaPoWriMo post, checked out Christine Cochrane’s blog and played around with (for me) the new poetic form of the san san. In the immensity of North Norfolk nights, Jupiter sits low in the sky after sunset, Its moons set like diamonds on either side. Along the coast, a festoon of twinkling […]
Claiming its Toll – a constanza
My response to Jane Dougherty’s Poetry challenge #26: Constanza The sea is an ever present ghost Lapping at the landscape’s edges Pulling at its seams and stitches Gulls survey from groyne and post Low dunes, marrams and wave explosion Sea encroachment and erosion All along the Norfolk coast Towns, hamlets and villages Dwindle […]
writing in north norfolk 