Alan Baker will be reading from his new collection and talking about poetry and place with Aly Stoneman and me at Five Leaves on Tuesday 30th April, 6.30 – 8pm.
Here is an excerpt from Alan’s marvellous Riverrun sonnet sequence…
From Riverrun
from the river to St. Ann’s Well
and Radford Road
always a boundary
when enclosure came
later the loom-breakers
radical bookshops
old stories of picket lines and pensions
funded by scratch cards and lottery tickets
and the Trent had freedom to roam
gathered and guided
a tapestrie of May-month meadows
as if we could all fleet the time carelessly
through the river’s industry a golden age
maybe it will come again
**
where is Nottingham’s river?
it’s under the ring-road flyover
or meandering out of town
through urban-blight fields
it has no mouth or delta
no loud falls or famous wharves
just a Midland Water Company warehouse
and a ferry no-one ever sees
with no important destination
only stability (that “underpinned industries
and arable production”)
hydrology dictating erosion and deposition
and I’ve had enough of its silences
and enigmatic moods
Alan Baker from Riverrun (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, 2019)
Sue Dymoke Poetry 