6 October 2022
Today is National Poetry Day and girls may find their teachers reading a poem during class that has particular significance to them. Some may pick the theme which, this year is “The Environment” or it might just be a poem they really like. I’d like to share one that I find significant to me (as I live close to the river Stour) that I found on the National Poetry Day website https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poems/
To the River Stour by Caleb Parkin
some call you S’toor, like poor
and I thought this your proper
posher name because mum
pronounced you that way
others called you St-our, like our
and maybe that’s your name
too as you wiggle like an idyll
on a National Trust postcard
through Essex-Suffolk floodplain
horizon pinned on with spires
punctured by telephone masts
ears trained on each glottal stop
coppiced willows flank your banks
boaters meander as they squint
to find tributaries into Constable
gorgeous and serene so flat and yet
I longed for the wide mouth
of estuaries the way they aren’t
one thing or another their brackish
manner part-play part-threat
Stour, St-oor, St-hour, you’re a Site
of Special Scientific Pinterest
a keepnet for Nordic walkers
a cowpat for bluebottle tourists
and streams of gleaming Land
Rovers yearning for a blemish
a picture-perfect cream tea
on an English patina, cracking
© Caleb Parkin
With kind permission from the author and Broken Sleep Books
There are many other poems to explore on that website. Relax, unwind and enjoy!
Mrs Cassell, Librarian