Polesworth Poets Trail
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    • Listen...
    • The River Anker
    • Famous Men
    • Power
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    • Phase Two >
      • Along The Canal
      • Collaborative Poem
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      • Pooley Country Park - Environment and Nature
  • The Poets
    • Garrie Fletcher
    • Penny Harper
    • Sarah Armstrong
    • Mal Dewhirst
    • Jonathan Morley
    • Gill Learner
    • Jane Holland
    • Helen Yendall
    • Janine Warre
    • Raymond Hendy
    • Phase Two >
      • Peter Grey
      • Gary Longden
      • Sarah James
      • Dea Costelloe
      • Barry Patterson
      • Gina Coates
      • Margaret Torr
      • Bernadette O'Dwyer
      • Barry Hunt
      • Marjorie Neilson
      • Janet Smith
      • Gary Carr
      • Janis Kind
      • Terri Jolland
      • Hench-4
      • Jacqui Rowe
  • The Trail
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  • About
    • The Poetry Trail
    • The Project
    • Phase Two
    • The Original Polesworth Poets
  • Get In Touch
  • Links
    • Polesworth Parish Council
    • Polesworth Abbey
    • Pooley Country Park
  • Home
  • The Poems
    • Gods Dance Within Us
    • Osanna
    • The Polesworth Pact
    • Squab
    • Song 13 (Drayton Dub)
    • Listen...
    • The River Anker
    • Famous Men
    • Power
    • Memories of Pooley Mine
    • Phase Two >
      • Along The Canal
      • Collaborative Poem
      • Pooley Country Park - Mining
      • Pooley Country Park - Environment and Nature
  • The Poets
    • Garrie Fletcher
    • Penny Harper
    • Sarah Armstrong
    • Mal Dewhirst
    • Jonathan Morley
    • Gill Learner
    • Jane Holland
    • Helen Yendall
    • Janine Warre
    • Raymond Hendy
    • Phase Two >
      • Peter Grey
      • Gary Longden
      • Sarah James
      • Dea Costelloe
      • Barry Patterson
      • Gina Coates
      • Margaret Torr
      • Bernadette O'Dwyer
      • Barry Hunt
      • Marjorie Neilson
      • Janet Smith
      • Gary Carr
      • Janis Kind
      • Terri Jolland
      • Hench-4
      • Jacqui Rowe
  • The Trail
  • News
  • About
    • The Poetry Trail
    • The Project
    • Phase Two
    • The Original Polesworth Poets
  • Get In Touch
  • Links
    • Polesworth Parish Council
    • Polesworth Abbey
    • Pooley Country Park

Listen...

Once it was the swish of scythes, nuns’ voices
raised in psalms, clip-clip of hooves,
thump and swill of washing on the Anker’s stones.

Later, the creak of winding gear, crunch
of navvies’ spades, a bargee’s yell, the songs
of men in uniform who would not return.

Then engines chugging down the cut,
tractor drone, the snarl of Heinkels overhead,
walls crumpling in nearby towns.

Now there’s the simmer of the motorway,
thud of boot on ball, blare of high-speed trains,
shouts of children coming out of school.

By night it’s TV garble from behind shut doors,
robins carolling in streetlight sun,
the hum of dreams high-flying to the stars.
Gill Learner
Location: Outside the butcher's shop (M.J. Smith)

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This website is managed by Polesworth Parish Council

Address:
The Clerk, The Tithe Barn, Hall Court, Bridge Street, Polesworth, B78 1DT

Telephone:
01827 892320